Donald Trump's Approach Pose a Danger to Our Social Fabric.

The domestic and foreign policies – from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to current actions and threats – undermine not only domestic and international legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

They threaten the core idea of what we mean by.

The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Otherwise, we could find ourselves locked in a state of nature where survival of the strongest wins.

This concept is embedded of the nation's founding texts. This is also the foundation of the global system established after WWII advocated by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the rule of law.

Yet, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their influence. Maintaining it requires that the influential have enough integrity to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that society hold them accountable should they falter.

Absolute power does not equal right. It results in instability, disruption, and conflict.

Each instance entities that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are less so, the structure of our shared norms frays. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can descend into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.

Our current reality is a society and world with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than ever before. This encourages the powerful to exploit the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The fortunes of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers much of the globe. AI is poised to centralize wealth and power even more. The offensive capability of the major powers is unmatched in the annals of time.

Empowered by political allies and a pliant judicial body, the presidency has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of government in recent memory.

Consider this confluence and you grasp the threat.

An unbroken thread ties earlier transgressions to ongoing provocations. Both were based on the hubris of omnipotence.

One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.

However, unfettered might does not create right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to constrain the powerful also shield them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for more power and wealth ultimately bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for global conflict.

Such lawlessness will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for a long time.