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The internal and external initiatives – including the challenge to the democratic process previously to current incursions and warnings – weaken both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

They jeopardize the core idea of a civilized world.

A moral purpose of a functioning society is to forestall the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Without this, we risk being trapped in a brutish war where only the fittest prevails.

This principle is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the core of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the US, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

Yet, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who would exploit their authority. Preserving it demands that the influential have enough integrity to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unfettered might does not make right. It results in instability, chaos, and hostilities.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are not, the fabric of our shared norms frays. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

Our current reality is a global community with deepening divides. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they feel above the law.

The fortunes of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is likely to consolidate economic and political clout even more. The destructive power of the major powers is unprecedented in recorded history.

Supported by political allies and a sympathetic judicial body, the executive office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of state power in history.

Combine these factors and you see the danger.

A clear connection connects previous transgressions to ongoing menaces. Each were based on the overconfidence of omnipotence.

One observes much the same in international affairs: in military conflicts, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

Yet, raw power does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and bloodshed.

The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to constrain the influential also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources ultimately bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for international catastrophe.

This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for a long time.