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The domestic and foreign strategies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election previously to current incursions and threats – erode both domestic and international jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

These actions jeopardize the very concept of what we mean by.

The moral purpose of a functioning society is to stop the dominant from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be locked in a state of nature where might makes right could survive.

This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the foundation of the global system established after WWII championed by the United States, which stresses collective action, democracy, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.

However, it is a fragile principle, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their authority. Upholding it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Absolute power does not make right. It results in instability, disruption, and hostilities.

Whenever people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of civilization frays. If such aggression are not contained, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a global community with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in modern history. This invites the powerful to take advantage of the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The wealth of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is poised to consolidate resources and influence further. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is without parallel in human history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and a sympathetic supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in history.

Combine these factors and you perceive the looming crisis.

A clear connection ties past transgressions to present-day threats. Each were based on the overconfidence of absolute power.

There is parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.

But, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters fragility, upended order, and bloodshed.

History shows that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also protect them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches in time cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.

This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.