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The internal and external initiatives – ranging from the attempted coup previously to latest actions and warnings – erode both domestic and international legal frameworks. But that’s not all.

They threaten the core idea of what we mean by.

A ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to forestall the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Failing that, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right wins.

This principle lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the foundation of the global system established after WWII advocated by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

But, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who would exploit their authority. Preserving it requires that the influential have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unfettered might is not right. It leads to uncertainty, chaos, and conflict.

Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are not, the structure of civilization frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in modern history. This creates conditions for the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they feel omnipotent.

The fortunes of a small group of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The influence of global industrial giants covers a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is poised to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The military might of the world's largest nations is unmatched in the annals of time.

Supported by complicit legislators and a sympathetic supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you see the threat.

A direct line connects past transgressions to ongoing provocations. Each were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.

There is much the same in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.

But, strength without restraint does not create right. It makes for uncertainty, revolution, and bloodshed.

History shows that laws and norms to check the powerful also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources ultimately cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk global conflict.

This kind of lawlessness will haunt America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for years to come.