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His domestic and foreign strategies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to recent moves and statements – erode not only domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.

They endanger the core idea of what we mean by.

The ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to stop the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be trapped in a state of nature where might makes right could survive.

This principle lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the America, built on collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a delicate construct, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their authority. Preserving it necessitates that the influential have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility when they fail.

Absolute power does not make right. It leads to turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are advantaged prey upon those that are not, the structure of civilization weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

We now inhabit a global community with deepening divides. Authority and resources are more concentrated than ever before. This invites the elite to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they feel omnipotent.

The wealth of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the leading countries is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Supported by political allies and a sympathetic judicial body, the highest office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you see the danger.

An unbroken thread ties previous lawless actions to current menaces. Each were premised on the arrogance of invincibility.

One observes much the same in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

But, strength without restraint does not create right. It produces fragility, upheaval, and bloodshed.

History shows that laws and norms to constrain the powerful also shield them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time lead to their downfall – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.

Such disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.