Trump's Policies Pose a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
His national and international policies – ranging from the attempted coup five years ago to latest moves and statements – undermine both national and global law. The implications are broader.
These actions threaten the very concept of what we mean by.
The moral purpose of a functioning society is to forestall the stronger from preying upon and using the less powerful. Failing that, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.
This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. This is also the foundation of the postwar international order championed by the US, built on collective action, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
However, it is a fragile principle, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their authority. Preserving it requires that the those in charge have enough integrity to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us hold them accountable when they fail.
Absolute power is not right. It makes for uncertainty, disruption, and conflict.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the framework of civilization weakens. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
Our current reality is a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized 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 resources of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate wealth and power even more. The offensive capability of the leading countries is without parallel in recorded history.
Empowered by complicit legislators and a pliant supreme court, the highest office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of state power in the modern era.
Consider this confluence and you see the danger.
An unbroken thread links earlier lawless actions to current threats. Each were founded upon the hubris of omnipotence.
There is much the same in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It produces uncertainty, revolution, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to limit the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually lead to their downfall – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for world war.
Such disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.
