Donald Trump's Policies Pose a Threat to Our Social Fabric.
The internal and external policies – including the attempted coup in the past to latest moves and warnings – undermine not only domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.
They threaten the core idea of civilization itself.
The ethical foundation of civilized society is to forestall the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.
This concept lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the heart of the modern framework of international relations championed by the America, built on international cooperation, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.
But, it is a vulnerable ideal, often broken by those who seek to abuse their power. Maintaining it requires that the those in charge have a sense of duty to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.
Unfettered might does not make right. It results in uncertainty, chaos, and war.
Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are advantaged prey upon those that are not, the fabric of civilization frays. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
Today, we live in a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in recent memory. This encourages the privileged to take advantage of the weaker because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.
The fortunes of a small group of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over numerous countries. AI is poised to centralize economic and political clout further. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unmatched in the annals of time.
Enabled by a compliant faction and a pliant high court, the presidency has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of the state in recent memory.
Combine these factors and you see the threat.
A direct line ties past transgressions to present-day threats. These were founded upon the hubris of invincibility.
One observes much the same in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
However, raw power does not create right. It fosters uncertainty, upheaval, and bloodshed.
History shows that frameworks designed to constrain the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources in time cause their collapse – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.
This blatant disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for a long time.
