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His domestic and foreign policies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to current moves and threats – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.

These actions endanger the core idea of a civilized world.

A moral purpose of a functioning society is to prevent the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Failing that, we could find ourselves locked in a conflict of all against all where might makes right prevails.

This ideal is embedded of the nation's founding texts. This is also the core of the global system established after WWII advocated by the America, built on international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

However, it is a vulnerable ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it requires that the influential have enough integrity to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us hold them accountable when they fail.

Unfettered might does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, disruption, and conflict.

Each instance entities that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are weaker, the fabric of civilization frays. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a society and world with deepening divides. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This encourages the elite to take advantage of the weaker because they act with a sense of above the law.

The wealth of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. AI is could consolidate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is unprecedented in recorded history.

Empowered by political allies and a pliant supreme court, the presidency has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in history.

Combine these factors and you see the threat.

An unbroken thread connects earlier lawless actions to ongoing menaces. Each were founded upon the overconfidence of absolute power.

There is parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

However, unfettered might does not establish right. It fosters instability, revolution, and war.

History shows that laws and norms to limit the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth ultimately bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.

Such lawlessness will haunt the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.