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Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
It feels like only a short time ago when I wrote a similar article about post-election chaos in the battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And all hell did break loose in cities across the country. While the worst of it was short-lived, it set the scene for four years of contempt, disrespect, and growing disenfranchisement with the opinions of our fellow Americans.
And here we are with another hotly contested election between two candidates who are both deeply scorned by the opposition. In terms of unrest, it doesn’t matter who is announced as the winner of this election. Someone is going to be furious.
We’ve already seen at least two legitimate assassination attempts against Donald Trump. We’ve seen people with huge social media followings call for his death with no blowback from the Secret Service. Kamala Harris never won a presidential primary and thus far, the momentum seems to be swinging for Trump.
Regardless of who wins (or is announced the winner), chaos is likely to erupt. And with both candidates suggesting they might be unwilling to concede to the other, expect the flames to be fanned by this.
But this article is not about Republicans or Democrats or even the election process itself. It’s not about whether our election integrity is still in place.
It’s about the aftermath and how it will affect all of us.
Will we all lose on November 5th?
D*mned if we do and d*mned if we don’t.
That basically sums up the current election cycle. I’d go so far as to say that everybody loses during this election, especially if the promised chaos erupts when the winner is announced.
Regardless of which candidate “wins” the presidential election, I have a bad feeling about the aftermath. I think we could be on the cusp of the most widespread civil unrest since the Civil War.
It’s important to note motivations. Some folks will be true believers that their candidate was the only person who could save America. Others will look at it as an opportunity to loot with no repercussions. Both can be very dangerous, but true believers will target persons and institutions with different philosophies from them.
You need to get prepped. Immediately.
What it all boils down to is that we need to be prepared.
We need to be ready for any unrest that comes about as a direct result of the election – and I really believe that there will be some form of uprising against the result. I hope it will be nothing more than a few minor, isolated incidents, but I can’t get past the nagging feeling that all hell is just about to break loose.
November 4th could be the last day of relative normalcy for quite some time.
If possible, hunker down in a safe location.
Generally speaking, urban areas will be the most dangerous. If you live downtown, election week might be better spent visiting friends or family outside of the city. However, I know that life continues, and you may not be able to just pick up and leave. If you can’t do that, you need to prepare your home for the potential of riots. (See this article.)
Of course, no place is completely safe. Just ask the lady who flew a Trump flag during the last election who received a letter saying her rural home was a target for arson.
Dear neighbor, you have been identified by our group as being a Trump supporter. Your address has been added to our database as a target when we attack should Trump not concede the election. We recommend that you check your home insurance policy and make that it is current and that it has adequate coverage for fire damage. You have been given ‘Fair Warning.’ (source)
I’m not trying to scare you, but if these folks in small-town New Hampshire are targets, anyone could be. Don’t let your location lull you into a false sense of security. When people are angry and radicalized, any place where someone disagrees with them can become a target.
Don’t be afraid – be prepared.
Check out this anthology, How to Survive Dangerous Times, for more information.
Have what you need so you don’t have to leave home.
Once you get hunkered down, be prepared to stay put for a while. You don’t want to have to shove your way through an angry mob to get a gallon of milk or a necessary prescription. You will be far better off if you are able to get the supplies you need to stay home for at least a week without leaving.
- Food
- Water
- Medications
- OTC remedies
- Hygiene supplies
- Pet supplies
Try to shop for two weeks at a time on your next few grocery trips so you can be sure to have what you need on hand. Do NOT forget essentials like prescription medications.
You may want to grab a prescription medication kit from The Wellness Company to make sure you have the things you might really need.
Stay informed.
You need to stay apprised of what is going on in your area. In this digital era, it’s easier than ever before to know what’s going on near you. Some of the following can provide communications options.
- Police scanners: Search “Broadcastify” and “city name” to tune in to your local scanners online. Here’s the website itself.
- Twitter: Search #citynameprotest or just your city name and protests without the hashtags. Follow local news stations too.
- Local watch groups and apps: If you are on social media, you may be a part of a local neighborhood watch group. These can even be broken down into neighborhoods in larger urban areas. Check out “city name” and “watch” on Facebook. There are also apps like NextDoor which may help you to remain informed.
- Sign up for Alerts USA: This is the app I use on my phone to keep me apprised of civil unrest, terror attacks, and more. I’ve had it for ears and can tell you for a fact that I get information way before the news is reporting it.
Remember that your information is only as good as your source. If there’s a person in your local group that responds with hysteria to every event, he or she might not be the best arbiter of truth. As well, the media has been notoriously biased in its coverage, calling violent riots “peaceful protests.” Take the time to confirm the information with more than one source when you can.
Avoid trouble.
The thing that Selco and Toby said to us the most when we were in Croatia discussing different scenarios was, “Don’t be there.” And if it was a situation where you found yourself there, the advice was, “Don’t be there as soon as possible.” Or in other words, get the heck out of there.
Don’t go to a “peaceful protest” in solidarity if you aren’t also prepared to be swept up into a riot. Mobs form quickly and do not think rationally. (More on mob mentality here) Stay as far away from large, angry groups of people as possible. You may feel a strong urge to counterprotest – you should squelch that urge if safety is key for you. I’ve written before about how survival is just about surviving and no place is that more true than in situations like this. Many readers call this cowardly and if they want to go down fighting, that’s certainly their prerogative. I plan to live to fight smarter when the odds are in my favor.
Don’t go out of curiosity to “see what’s going on.” Avoid volatile situations and people. Don’t try to confront a mob by yourself – your property is not worth the lives of you and your family. To learn more about surviving civil unrest and riots, go here and learn about surviving civil unrest from Selco.
My best advice is this: Get home. Stay home. Be ready in case trouble comes to you.
Try to stay under the radar.
Your best defense is avoiding the fight altogether. You want to stay under the radar and not draw attention to yourself. The extent to which you strive to do this should be based on the severity of the unrest in your area. Some of the following recommendations are not necessary in an everyday grid-down scenario, but could save your life in a more extreme civil unrest scenario.
- Keep all the doors and windows locked. Secure sliding doors with a metal bar. Consider installing decorative gridwork over a door with a large window so that it becomes difficult for someone to smash the glass and reach in to unlock the door.
- Keep pets indoors. Sometimes criminals use an animal in distress to get a homeowner to open the door for them. Sometimes people are just mean and hurt animals for “fun”. Either way, it’s safer for your furry friends to be inside with you.
- Don’t answer the door. Many home invasions start with an innocent-seeming knock at the door to gain access to your house.
- Keep the family together. It’s really best to hang out in one room. Make it a movie night, go into a darkened room at the back of the house, and stay together. This way, if someone does try to breach your door, you know where everyone is who is supposed to be there. As well, you don’t risk one of the kids unknowingly causing a vulnerability with a brightly lit room or an open window.
- Remember, first responders may be tied up. If the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you. You must be prepared to save yourself. Also keep in mind, as mentioned earlier in the article – the cops are not always your friends in these situations. This isn’t a denouncement of all police officers but a realistic assessment of a heightened state.
Be ready for the potential of fire.
Fires are very common during incidents of civil unrest. Generally, vehicles and commercial properties are where fires are set but in some incidents, homes have been burned too.
Fire is a cowardly attack that doesn’t require any interaction on the part of the arsonist. It flushes out the family inside, leaving you vulnerable to physical assaults.
Fires can easily spread from one building to the next, especially if firefighters can’t respond safely or can’t get their fire truck through the mob. Be on the watch for fires in your vicinity.
Fire can also be used as a weapon. Here’s an article about dealing with firebombs and Molotov cocktails should such an event arise.
Be prepared for defensive action.
If, despite your best efforts, your property draws the attention of people with ill intent, you must be ready to defend your family. Sometimes, despite our best intentions, the fight comes to us. (Have you seen the movie The Purge?)
Many preppers stockpile weapons and ammunition for just such an event. Firearms are an equalizer. A small woman can defend herself from multiple large intruders with a firearm if she’s had some training and knows how to use it properly. But put a kitchen knife in her hand against those same intruders, and her odds decrease exponentially.
When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure the people coming in are not there to make friendly conversation or borrow a cup of sugar. Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force.
- Don’t rely on 911. If the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you – you must be prepared to save yourself. First responders may be tied up, and in some cases, the cops are not always your friends. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some officers joined in the crime sprees, and others stomped all over the 2nd Amendment and confiscated people’s legal firearms at a time when they needed them the most.
- Be armed and keep your firearm on your person. When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure the people coming in are not there to make friendly conversation over a nice cup of tea. Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force. Be sure to keep your firearm on your person during this type of situation, because there won’t be time to go get it from your gun safe. Don’t even go to the kitchen to get a snack without it. Home invasions go down in seconds, and you have to be constantly ready.
- Know how to use your firearm. Whatever your choice of weapon, practice, practice, practice. A weapon you don’t know how to use is more dangerous than having no weapon at all.
- Make sure your children are familiar with the rules of gun safety. Of course, it should go without saying that you will have pre-emptively taught your children the rules of gun safety so that no horrifying accidents occur. In fact, it’s my fervent hope that any child old enough to do so has been taught to safely and effectively use a firearm themselves. Knowledge is safety.
- Have a safe room established for children or other vulnerable family members. If the worst happens and your home is breached, you need to have a room into which family members can escape. This room needs to have a heavy exterior door instead of a regular hollow core interior door. There should be communications devices in the room so that the person can call for help, as well as a reliable weapon to be used in the unlikely event that the safe room is breached. The family members should be instructed not to come out of that room FOR ANY REASON until you give them the all-clear or help has arrived. You can learn more about building a safe room HERE. Focus on the tips for creating a safe room in an apartment to put it together more quickly.
Always have another plan.
Forget simply having a Plan B. If you find yourself in a chaotic situation, you must constantly think of the next plan. You must constantly think, “What will I do if …… happens?”
Even if your plan is to hunker down, you must be ready to change that plan in the blink of an eye.
Plan an escape route. If the odds are against you, if your house catches on fire, if thugs are kicking in your front door… devise a way to get your family to safety. Your property is not worth your life. Be wise enough to accept that the situation has changed and move rapidly to the next plan.
We’re in this for the long haul.
I hope that none of these preps are necessary, but this is WHY we prep – just in case. We look ahead and use our best judgment to face potential problems.
The post-election world could look very different. The United States has been hit with a lot lately, everything from a straight-up invasion at the southern border to protests on behalf of Palestine turning into riots in our streets to Venezuelan gangs literally taking over American apartment buildings. Our own citizens in Western North Carolina are reeling from the most destructive storm in the history of that area. At the same time, the government shortchanges them and gives millions to Ukraine and Lebanon.
Inflation is at an all-time high.
Crime rates are climbing rapidly – the FBI just quietly updated their statistics to reflect this.
This election will add fuel to the fire regardless of the outcome. In fact, the outcome itself could remain in question for months to follow, sparking even more unrest.
We are looking at a world in which violence is becoming increasingly more common, where people are at the ends of their ropes financially, and where everyone believes fervently that their candidate is the only option.
No matter who you are, no matter where you are, you’ll feel the effects of this in some way.
What do you foresee?
There’s an old saying, hope for peace but prepare for war. Our own country could look very much like a battlefield in the near future.
How do you see events unfolding after the election? Does your prediction vary by the candidate who is declared the winner? Let’s discuss it in the comments. Please remain civil, and for the love of fluffy kittens, do not threaten violence in the comments section.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
