“John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon.”

So said Bolton’s mentor, former senator and forever-segregationist Jesse Helms, describing the man he took under his wing during the Reagan years and helped set on the path to political power. Helms, who died in 2008, will never get to live out his doomsday fantasies.

The rest of us may not be so lucky.