Trump's Actions Constitute a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
His internal and external policies – ranging from the attempted coup five years ago to current incursions and warnings – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
They threaten the core idea of what we mean by.
A ethical foundation of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Failing that, we risk being trapped in a brutish war where only the fittest prevails.
This concept is embedded of America’s founding documents. It’s also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, emphasizing international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable principle, often broken by those who choose to misuse their power. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.
Unchecked strength is not right. It leads to instability, chaos, and hostilities.
Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are not, the fabric of our shared norms frays. If such aggression are left unchecked, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than ever before. This invites the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of omnipotent.
The resources of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate wealth and power further. The offensive capability of the major powers is unmatched in the annals of time.
Empowered by a compliant faction and a sympathetic judicial body, the presidency has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked agent of government in recent memory.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the looming crisis.
A clear connection connects earlier breaches of norms to ongoing menaces. Both were based on the hubris of absolute power.
You see parallel dynamics in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.
Yet, unfettered might does not establish right. It produces uncertainty, revolution, and war.
History shows that rules and conventions to constrain the influential also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually cause their collapse – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten global conflict.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.
