Trump's Approach Constitute a Danger to Civilized Society.
His national and international policies – including the challenge to the democratic process in the past to current actions and threats – undermine not only domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.
They threaten the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
A guiding principle of a functioning society is to forestall the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Without this, we risk being permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest wins.
This ideal is embedded of America’s founding documents. This is also the core of the global system established after WWII championed by the United States, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.
However, it is a delicate construct, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their authority. Preserving it requires that the those in charge have a sense of duty to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that society demand responsibility should they falter.
Unfettered might is not right. It results in instability, chaos, and conflict.
Every time people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are less so, the framework of society frays. Should such behavior are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.
We now inhabit a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This invites the elite to leverage their position against the weaker because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.
The resources of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans much of the globe. Advanced technology is could centralize economic and political clout further. The military might of the leading countries is unprecedented in recorded history.
Enabled by complicit legislators and an accommodating judicial body, the presidency has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked agent of state power in recent memory.
Put it all together and you see the danger.
A direct line links past breaches of norms to present-day threats. These were premised on the hubris of absolute power.
You see a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.
Yet, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters instability, upheaval, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to constrain the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources eventually lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.
This kind of lawlessness will plague the nation and the world – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for a long time.
