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His national and international policies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election in the past to recent actions and statements – erode both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

They endanger the very concept of civilization itself.

The guiding principle of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Otherwise, we risk being trapped in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest wins.

This ideal is central of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the foundation of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the US, which stresses international cooperation, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.

Yet, it is a vulnerable ideal, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their influence. Preserving it demands that the influential have enough integrity to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.

Absolute power does not equal right. It results in turmoil, chaos, and conflict.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are not, the structure of society unravels. If such aggression are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This creates conditions for the elite to take advantage of the weaker because they act with a sense of omnipotent.

The wealth of a handful of billionaires is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants extends over a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is poised to further concentrate economic and political clout further. The military might of the world's largest nations is without parallel in human history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating judicial body, the presidency has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of state power in the modern era.

Consider this confluence and you see the danger.

A direct line ties earlier breaches of norms to present-day threats. These were based on the hubris of invincibility.

One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.

But, raw power does not make right. It produces fragility, upended order, and bloodshed.

History shows that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also shield them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for international catastrophe.

This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt the nation and the world – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.