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His domestic and foreign strategies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election in the past to current moves and threats – erode both domestic and international legal frameworks. The implications are broader.

They endanger the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

The ethical foundation of civilized society is to prevent the dominant from preying upon and using the weaker. Otherwise, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.

This concept lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the heart of the global system established after WWII supported by the US, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their influence. Preserving it demands that the influential have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the public hold them accountable if they don't.

Unchecked strength is not right. It results in instability, disruption, and war.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of civilization frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

Today, we live in a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than ever before. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The fortunes of a small group of tycoons is staggering. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is poised to consolidate wealth and power further. The military might of the leading countries is unmatched in human history.

Supported by a compliant faction and an accommodating supreme court, the presidency has been made into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in the modern era.

Put it all together and you grasp the danger.

An unbroken thread ties earlier breaches of norms to current threats. Each were based on the arrogance of invincibility.

There is much the same in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.

Yet, raw power does not make right. It makes for instability, upended order, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time lead to their downfall – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.

This kind of contempt for legal order will haunt international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.