Trump's Policies Present a Danger to Our Social Fabric.

His domestic and foreign strategies – including the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to current incursions and threats – erode not only national and global jurisprudence. But that’s not all.

These actions endanger the core idea of what we mean by.

The guiding principle of civilized society is to prevent the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Without this, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right wins.

This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the foundation of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

Yet, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who seek to abuse their authority. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have enough integrity to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.

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

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are weaker, the framework of society weakens. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into instability and violence. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than ever before. This encourages the powerful to take advantage of the less fortunate because they feel omnipotent.

The fortunes of a handful of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is poised to further concentrate wealth and power to a greater degree. The military might of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in recorded history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and a sympathetic judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked agent of the state in history.

Combine these factors and you grasp the danger.

An unbroken thread ties past lawless actions to present-day provocations. Each were based on the overconfidence of absolute power.

One observes much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

But, raw power does not make right. It produces instability, revolution, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to check the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time lead to their downfall – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.

This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for a long time.