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The domestic and foreign policies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election previously to latest actions and warnings – undermine not only national and global law. The implications are broader.

These actions endanger the very concept of a civilized world.

The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Failing that, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest wins.

This principle is central of America’s founding documents. It’s also the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the America, built on multilateralism, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.

However, it is a fragile principle, often broken by those who choose to misuse their authority. Maintaining it requires that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us demand responsibility when they fail.

Absolute power does not make right. It results in instability, upheaval, and conflict.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the framework of civilization frays. If these actions are not contained, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the weaker because they feel untouchable.

The resources of a handful of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans numerous countries. Advanced technology is could centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in recorded history.

Supported by a compliant faction and a pliant high court, the presidency has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in history.

Combine these factors and you grasp the threat.

A direct line ties previous breaches of norms to ongoing provocations. Each were premised on the arrogance of absolute power.

One observes much the same in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

However, raw power does not make right. It produces fragility, upended order, and armed conflict.

History shows that laws and norms to limit the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for more power and wealth in time cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.

This kind of lawlessness will haunt the nation and the world – and indeed a rules-based order – for a long time.