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His internal and external initiatives – ranging from the attempted coup five years ago to recent incursions and threats – erode not only domestic and international legal frameworks. The implications are broader.

They endanger the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.

A moral purpose of a functioning society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Without this, we would be trapped in a conflict of all against all where might makes right could survive.

This concept lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the core of the postwar international order championed by the US, emphasizing international cooperation, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

However, it is a delicate construct, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it demands that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society demand responsibility when they fail.

Unchecked strength is not right. It leads to instability, chaos, and conflict.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are weaker, the framework of civilization unravels. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.

Today, we live in a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than ever before. This creates conditions for the elite to take advantage of the weaker because they feel omnipotent.

The resources of certain tycoons is difficult to fathom. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate resources and influence to a greater degree. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Empowered by complicit legislators and a pliant high court, the highest office has been made into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of government in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you grasp the danger.

An unbroken thread ties past transgressions to present-day menaces. Both were founded upon the arrogance of invincibility.

You see much the same in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

However, strength without restraint does not create right. It produces fragility, revolution, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to constrain the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth ultimately lead to their downfall – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for global conflict.

This blatant lawlessness will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.