America's Political Chernobyl

 

 Warning: extreme pessimism alert

 Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” I’ve read enough history to be just a little bit dangerous when it comes to expressing an opinion on geopolitical circumstances. But what the Hell, I’m not a megalomaniacal billionaire suffering from a messiah complex nor a dementia-ridden, deviant, traitor conman who loves the uneducated. So I think I can safely express the level of pessimism I feel without causing any damage.

This mindset started yesterday as I began to rewatch the HBO series on the Chernobyl disaster. The book, Midnight at Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham is a much more detailed history of the events surrounding the disaster. But the HBO series, more of human drama, is accurate enough for this post.

American conservatives love to point to the Chernobyl disaster as one of the proofs that all forms of socialism is intrinsically evil. Yes, Marxist-Leninism has killed untold millions of people around the world and caused suffering of even more, but in the case of Chernobyl communism takes on more of an American Corporate mismanagement/mafia-like feel.

The explosion of the Number Four RBMK reactor at Chernobyl was caused by a number of design flaws and operator errors during a late-night safety test. The purpose of this test was to determine how long the reactors turbines could provide power after shutdown. But the operators either disabled or ignored numerous safety protocols.

The actual mechanics of the reactor failure isn’t relevant here but the actions of the operators and the management staff above them are. In simple terms many in the control room initially refused to believe the severity of the situation. And only after the radioactive elephant in the room could not be ignored any further did the mechanisms of the State begin to act. But instead of those involved taking responsibility and moving with all due speed to mitigate the cataclysm, almost everyone in leadership blamed someone else or did their best to lie about the what happened.

Chernobyl was a nightmare from the beginning but as events unfolded it became blindingly clear to the few competent people in the Soviet Union that their entire government was lies and illusions tightly wrapped together around a rotten hollow core.

In actuality, as stated in the book, there were a small group of individuals who heroically worked to get the various bureaucratic agencies moving in the right direction. Chernobyl could have been far worse, there were several post-explosion events that could have literally made huge chunks of eastern and central Europe radioactive wastelands for centuries.

The biggest causality of Chernobyl was ultimately the Soviet government. Its incompetence and lies were eventually fully exposed to both its allies and enemies. Throw in the Soviet Union’s own disastrous Afghanistan involvement and the entire world finally understood it was an empire about to collapse. The invisible Red Menace fell to pieces just a few years later. Somehow its collapse was still a shock to many in governments around the world.

Where the historical rhymes begin in my opinion come from the second Trump Administration that in less than a month in power of this post has literally destroyed the reputation of the United States government around the world.

Where shall I start? First Trump seems to have a Neo-imperialistic agenda with his desire to buy Greenland, annex Canada, attack Mexico, and retake the Panama Canal. And yes, he has not ruled out using military force to achieve these objectives. This point alone reveals a level of stupidity, incompetence and corruption that rivals the worst of the Chernobyl disaster. None of our allies should ever trust a goddamn thing any American president says again. While we may yet survive the Tangerine Hitler- something I highly doubt- and elect a competent president again, there will always be a possibility that another demagogue emerges to undo the previous administration’s actions.

Secondly, the Tangerine Hitler has unleashed the self-proclaimed savior of Western Civilization, Elmo Musk on the inner workings of the United States government. Elmo and his minions are working relentlessly to destroy the inner workings of the United States government like a rabid bull in a tiny China shop.

Third point is his insane tariffs he was about to place on Canada and Mexico. While at the time of this post these tariffs have been delayed after both countries placated the “Art of the Deal” conman with agreements made during the Biden Administration. The result of course is still the same, at any moment Tangerine Hitler could throw a tantrum throwing economic deals in chaos. Shit like that tends to wreck economies.

My fourth point is that the Republican Party control all three branches of the United States government and none have shown any willingness to rein in Trump’s psychotic impulses. And the Democrats? There are a few working as a resistance, but the party leaders have been AWOL since the election. The Soviet Union of course was filled to the brim with party hacks that acted more like sheep than leaders.

My last point is Trump’s choices for his cabinet. The level of incompetence and fanatical devotion to his cult of personality is outright terrifying. Cash Patel, Pam Bodi, the degenerate individual from a morning Fox News show he picked to run the DoD, and the brainworm RFK jr. are all examples of a Chernobyl-level nightmare waiting the right moment to happen.

The sad fact many suffering from delusions of American Exceptionalism fail to understand is that no nation is eternal. Especially when a nation’s leaders and the government they control are nothing but lies and illusions wrapped around a rotten core. When the truth about a nation’s failings and lack of ability to reform become obvious, that government is almost doomed to fall.

I honestly feel Trump could end the United States as a political entity. Given his actions in just the short time he’s been in office to ignore that possibility could bite us all in the ass.