Donald Trump's Approach Pose a Threat to Our Social Fabric.

The national and international initiatives – from the effort to overturn the election in the past to recent actions and statements – undermine both domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions threaten the very concept of what we mean by.

A ethical foundation of civilized society is to forestall the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Otherwise, we could find ourselves locked in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest could survive.

This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the US, built on collective action, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the rule of law.

However, it is a fragile construct, often broken by those who would exploit their power. Maintaining it necessitates that the powerful have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that society hold them accountable should they falter.

Unfettered might is not right. It results in instability, upheaval, and conflict.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of society frays. If these actions are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

We now inhabit a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This invites the elite to take advantage of the weaker because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The resources of a small group of tycoons is staggering. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over much of the globe. Advanced technology is poised to centralize resources and influence even more. The destructive power of the leading countries is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Supported by political allies and a pliant supreme court, the highest office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in recent memory.

Combine these factors and you perceive the threat.

A clear connection ties previous breaches of norms to current menaces. Both were based on the hubris of omnipotence.

You see much the same in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.

But, raw power does not create right. It makes for fragility, revolution, and armed conflict.

History shows that frameworks designed to check the powerful also shield them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for international catastrophe.

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