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The internal and external strategies – ranging from the attempted coup previously to current incursions and statements – weaken both domestic and international jurisprudence. But that’s not all.

These actions endanger the core idea of a civilized world.

The guiding principle of any advanced culture is to forestall the dominant from preying upon and using the less powerful. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right wins.

This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the heart of the global system established after WWII championed by the United States, built on international cooperation, democracy, individual liberties, and the rule of law.

Yet, it is a fragile principle, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their power. Upholding it demands that the powerful have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It makes for turmoil, disruption, and conflict.

Whenever entities that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are not, the structure of society weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This invites the powerful to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The fortunes of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans much of the globe. AI is could further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The military might of the world's largest nations is unmatched in human history.

Supported by complicit legislators and a sympathetic supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of government in history.

Consider this confluence and you grasp the danger.

A clear connection connects earlier lawless actions to current menaces. Both were premised on the hubris of omnipotence.

You see a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.

Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It produces fragility, revolution, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to check the influential also protect them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk global conflict.

This blatant contempt for legal order will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.