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The domestic and foreign initiatives – including the challenge to the democratic process previously to recent moves and threats – undermine both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

These actions endanger the core idea of civilization itself.

A moral purpose of civilized society is to stop the dominant from preying upon and using the less powerful. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a state of nature where survival of the strongest prevails.

This concept is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the core of the postwar international order advocated by the US, which stresses multilateralism, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a vulnerable ideal, easily violated by those who would exploit their influence. Upholding it requires that the powerful have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that society ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unfettered might does not equal right. It results in turmoil, upheaval, and conflict.

Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the fabric of society weakens. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a global community grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than ever before. This invites the elite to leverage their position against the weaker because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The resources of a small group of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of global industrial giants covers numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate resources and influence to a greater degree. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in recorded history.

Supported by complicit legislators and an accommodating judicial body, the executive office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of state power in the modern era.

Consider this confluence and you see the threat.

A clear connection ties earlier transgressions to present-day provocations. These were founded upon the overconfidence of absolute power.

One observes parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

Yet, strength without restraint does not create right. It fosters uncertainty, revolution, and bloodshed.

History shows that laws and norms to check the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources in time lead to their downfall – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten international catastrophe.

Such disregard for rules will plague America and the global community – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for years to come.