Protecting Yourself from Election Season

Dear Fellow Survivalist;

As we all know, election season is upon us. We’re heavy into the primaries; although I’ll have to say these have been the most unusual primaries I’ve seen. First, the incumbent has two challengers in his own party, trying to unseat him, which rarely happens. Then, with Nicky Haley dropping out of the race, Donad Trump is left without any serious competition, meaning he has basically won the Republican nomination.

So, the elections in November are going to be between Trump and whoever wins the Democrat nomination. That puts us right back where we were four years ago and eight years ago. I’m not going to bother trying to figure out who is going to win, at this point; I’m more concerned about what’s going to happen, leading up to election day.

Hatred of Trump hasn’t lessened in the little over three years since he’s been out of office. The Democrats haven’t stopped trying to make him out to be the bad guy, looking for anything they can, to take him to court. It apparently doesn’t even have to be true or within the bounds of the law, looking at some of the cases they’ve tried to bring against him.

But it’s the hatred, not the court cases, that should be our biggest concern. During the leadup to both the 2016 and 2020 elections, that hatred turned into violence. While there has not been any sign of that yet, for these elections, it’s still quite early. We’re in primary season and that probably won’t start until the parties have their conventions, declaring their candidates. Then it will be Trump against whoever, which is likely to turn into a free-for-all.

That’s what you and I need to be concerned about. Most victims of mob violence are innocent bystanders. It’s not even people who are against the mob or whatever they stand for; just people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The way mob psychology works, if you’re not part of the mob, then you’re a likely candidate to become a target of the mob. And from what we saw in those previous elections, what passed for a mob could actually be a fairly small group of people. But it doesn’t actually take a lot of people for the mob psychology to kick in.

So, what are you and I to do?

The first, and probably most important, thing I’d recommend, is to not become part of the political discourse this year. Granted, you have a right to believe anything you want about politics and speak out about your opinion, just like everyone else does. But you are probably not about to use that against someone, whereas there may be people who hear you and decide to use your political stance against you. Sadly, that’s the world we live in today.

While you’re at it, keep track of the political stance of those you interact with regularly; your co-workers, family members and neighbors. Those who have an opposing view to yours are the potential problems, especially if they tend towards fits of anger or violence. I’m not saying that any of them will do such things; just that I’d be careful around them.

The other big thing to do is to avoid any political rallies or other such events. While they can be peaceful, there’s always the possibility that the “other side” will show up in force, with the intent of causing problems. That has happened before, and if anything, they will be even more extreme this time around, than in the past.

Your pistol won’t do you the least bit of good in a mob situation. There’s no way that you’re going to be carrying enough ammunition to protect yourself from a mob. And if you try to, you’ll go to jail for mass murder or at least attempted mass murder. That’s a no-win situation.

Yes, there will most likely be violence this election season, as we’ve seen in the past; but that doesn’t mean that we need to be part of it. We’re much better off avoiding it altogether, then to go to the polls on election day and quietly cast our vote.

Sometimes, the best preparation isn’t keeping our powder dry and our survival gear close at hand; it’s staying away from where the problems are likely to be.

Dr. Rich