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The internal and external strategies – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to current moves and warnings – undermine not only domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

A guiding principle of civilized society is to prevent the more powerful from preying upon and using the less powerful. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right prevails.

This concept is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the foundation of the postwar international order advocated by the US, which stresses collective action, democracy, individual liberties, and the rule of law.

But, it is a delicate ideal, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their authority. Preserving it requires that the those in charge have enough integrity to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It results in instability, chaos, and hostilities.

Whenever entities that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of society unravels. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

Today, we live in a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than ever before. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they feel above the law.

The fortunes of certain tycoons is difficult to fathom. The power of global industrial giants spans much of the globe. AI is likely to consolidate economic and political clout further. The military might of the major powers is unmatched in human history.

Enabled by political allies and a sympathetic high court, the executive office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of government in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you grasp the threat.

A clear connection connects earlier breaches of norms to ongoing threats. Both were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.

You see parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

But, raw power does not make right. It produces fragility, upheaval, and war.

History shows that frameworks designed to limit the influential also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources ultimately lead to their downfall – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for world war.

This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for years to come.