The ‘Doomsday Clock’ Ticks Down Again — Here’s Why That Is Good News

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock,” which is supposed to be an expert assessment of how close the world is to a nuclear holocaust, ticked down to 85 seconds to midnight this week.

Are you scared? You shouldn’t be. The clock has proved to be a terrible measure of doomsday, but a near-perfect measure of the left’s grip on power, reliably moving away from midnight when Democrats are in the White House, and closer to Armageddon during Republican administrations.

First, look at the reasons behind why it ticked closer to midnight this year.

One of those listed was the bombing of Iran’s nuclear weapons sites last year. So, according to these “experts,” crippling a radical Islamic regime’s ability to build a nuclear bomb is making the world less safe?

Then there’s the fact that the bulletin includes “climate change” as an indicator of annihilation. What does a supposedly warming planet have to do with launching nuclear bombs? And why does it matter if the Trump administration “stripped back” (to use the New York Times’ words) public health infrastructure?

This year, the “experts” include “another frightening development: the rise of nationalistic autocracies in countries around the world.” They don’t say what countries they are referring to, but given the primal screams from the left, we’re sure this is meant to suggest that the U.S. is now under a “nationalistic autocracy.”

Want more evidence that the Doomsday Clock is just a leftist propaganda tool? Look at how the clock has changed over the past decades.

We did, back when we were with Investor’s Business Daily’s now-defunct editorial page. And here’s what we found:

The Clock routinely counted down after a Republican wins the White House, and ticked up when Democrats reclaim the presidency.

It moved a minute closer to midnight when Eisenhower took office, and four minutes closer to doomsday under Reagan. It ticked down four minutes while George W. Bush was president.

In contrast, the scientists moved the clock way back during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, kept it at an above-average level for Carter’s term in office, and set it at historic highs for much of Clinton’s eight years.

Since 1947, in fact, the Doomsday Clock has averaged 6.4 minutes to midnight during Republican administrations, compared with 8.3 minutes during Democratic ones.

The clock, for example, took a nose-dive under Reagan, moving from 7 minutes under Carter to 3 minutes by the end of Reagan’s first term. The rationale: Reagan’s alleged warmongering stance against the Soviet Union and his unwillingness to sign meaningless arms control deals.

But by 1991, the scientists reset the clock to 17 minutes, the furthest from midnight it’s ever been. Why? Because the Soviet Union had collapsed — a development largely credited to Reagan’s tough stance against global communism.

In other words, the scientists behind the Doomsday Clock got it exactly wrong. Appeasement made the world less safe, and Reagan’s anti-communist policies made it safer than it’s ever been since the Atomic Age began.

And these scientists will keep getting it wrong, so long as they use a warped leftist timepiece to measure real threats to humanity.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board