Donald Trump's Approach Present a Risk to Our Social Fabric.

The domestic and foreign policies – including the effort to overturn the election in the past to current incursions and warnings – erode both domestic and international legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

They threaten the very concept of civilization itself.

The ethical foundation of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Failing that, we risk being locked in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest prevails.

This principle lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the foundation of the global system established after WWII championed by the America, built on international cooperation, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

Yet, it is a fragile principle, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their influence. Preserving it requires that the influential have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable if they don't.

Absolute power does not equal right. It leads to uncertainty, disruption, and hostilities.

Every time entities that are advantaged prey upon those that are less so, the structure of civilization frays. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.

Our current reality is a international landscape with deepening divides. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This encourages the privileged to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of above the law.

The resources of certain tycoons is difficult to fathom. The power of global industrial giants extends over a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is poised to further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is unmatched in human history.

Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating judicial body, the presidency has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in history.

Put it all together and you see the looming crisis.

A direct line ties earlier transgressions to ongoing menaces. Both were premised on the overconfidence of invincibility.

You see parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

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

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to limit the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources in time cause their collapse – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.

Such lawlessness will haunt America and the global community – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.