Hello and welcome back to the Gubba podcast! I’m Gubba, a first time homesteader following in the footsteps of my homesteading forbears. In this podcast I discuss prepping, homesteading, and everything in between.
Today I am going to be discussing how you can prepare for the upcoming election. Here in the United States, we have a presidential election coming up in November and it is considered a big event for most.
I know that people tune in from all around the world to see who our president is going to be and if you are tuning in to this podcast and happen to not be from the united states and dealing with the election coming, the subject of prepping for an election will still apply to you.
How many times have we seen countries rise and fall, chaos after elections, and civil unrest take place. Too many times and we need to gear up for that. With big events like this, it is important to be prepared in more ways than just preparing for your preferred candidate to hopefully win. You want to be prepared for catastrophe and civil fall out. So let’s discuss.
What is prepping?
Prepping is a hot topic online. Keep in mind that it isn’t just a physical task, but it is also a mental task and we will be diving into scenarios that you may normally not think about but need to consider when it comes to prepping.
People blame preppers for the reason stores are empty during emergencies but this isn’t the case.
Prepping is the practice of preparing for emergencies, disasters, or other scenarios where access to resources and emergency personnel is limited or completely cut off. Think of a natural disaster like a hurricane. The weather channel reports a hurricane is rolling in, people pile to the stores to stock up on food and water, the hurricane finally hits and is worse than expected.
Emergency services are down for weeks, the power is out, and communications are down. Scenarios like this are what people prep for. Other scenarios include job loss, illness, civil unrest, inclement weather, and now, elections. Prepping isn’t limited to just having supplies on hand, but it means learning useful and practical skills that can help you during survival situations like this.
We will discuss practical prepping skills today as well, but it is important to understand that prepping is not just for fall-out type situations. Prepping can be for everyday scenarios. If you specifically want to learn about the food storage aspect of prepping, I have a food storage course that walks you through how to build and organize a food storage for you and your family.
How do you start prepping?
I began to dive into prepping full force after experiencing the chaos of 2020. I speak about this a lot, but who remembers the empty grocery store shelves in 2020? I remember the mom and pop shops were closed down, and you were forced to go to big box stores like Walmart, Target, and Costco for groceries. Pretty stupid as you were suppose to be social distancing but then they jammed you into a store with arrows on the floor.
We can all realize and accept that this was an experiment done on the people and a large transfer of wealth took place during 2020 right? The middle class was crushed and small businesses were forced to close while places like Walmart and amazon exploded. Makes me sick honestly, but that experience molded me and helped me wake up out of the Matrix. If you are starting to wake up to the world, you should watch the movie the Matrix. It mirrors our reality pretty well.
But walking down the Walmart aisles and seeing every shelf depleted of its food, the freezers and fridges sitting vacant, and people slamming their carts around arguing over the direction people should be walking or getting into fights if someone’s mask was below their nose was an eye opening moment for me.
I was wondering to myself, What am I doing here and how did I ever get so dependent on such a fragile unreliable system?
From then on, I took prepping more seriously. I had built a bit of a food storage with canned items up until then but walking through those dystopian store aisles made me realize that my skills were not sufficient for survival and neither were my supplies. That was my kick off for homesteading in general because I feel homesteading goes hand-in-hand with prepping but it doesn’t have to. I wanted to turn to a more self-sufficient way of life, but you can prep even if you don’t homestead.
How to prepare for an election?
When it comes to prepping for an election, it is a bit different than preparing for food shortages or other scenarios.
Let’s look the recent Venezula crash and see how many similarities you see to what is happening in the United States right now. In 2014, the country lost its primary source of income and the leader was blamed but the government ended up causing hyperinflation because they kept printing money. If you don’t know, the US is printing money which is leading to the dollar devalue. Venezuela started to move towards an authoritarian state which led to riots and protests. Okay, that sounds a bit familiar too.
Now, they’re economy began to collapse due to hyperinflation and this led to food shortages. Long lines starting forming to get bread which then the government tried to ration flour which made it worse. Their money became worthless and they could no longer get food or had any services. I think Venezuela is a wonderful example of how quickly these things happen and if you look at Venezuela they were extremely prosperous and it was one of the best countries to be living in. Then boom.
According to the narrative here in the US, if a certain politician gets in, everything will be great and society will be happy. If the other one gets in, it will be destruction and the end of our country. Seriously, I saw a tweet earlier of someone saying to wait until the election to make any big decisions like having kids, getting married, or moving because if a certain candidate doesn’t get in then it’s the end of America and our way of life and a bunch of doom and gloom.
I think it’s a good idea to just prepare for the worst, whatever that may be or whatever you think it is. If you think it is going to be the end of the country, then prepare for that. That means utilities won’t be reliable, cell phone service could go down, no one is manning emergency services so you have to bunker down, chaos erupts like we saw the riots in 2020 in the cities, people who have not prepared start to raid (this is called wolf prepping by the way and is incredibly low IQ and for people who have low IQ who watch survival movies and want to live it out.)
But honestly, countries collapse and America has been going for 200+ years now, I mean the cycle is doomed to repeat itself. Not to be a downer, but it is a good idea to prepare yourself and your family for this. Do I think that it would happen on election night? Maybe, who knows and that’s the point of prepping. You never know so it’s best to prepare ahead of time.
What are raider preppers?
Something to consider when you are prepping, especially for an election I feel, is the mentality of other people. If there is some weird stuff that goes down with the election and emergency services aren’t available or they are but are rendered useless like we see with crime in the cities where the police and other services don’t even do anything for crime or riots, you want to prepare yourself for the cookiest of crazy people.
There are genuinely people out there who their only means of preparation is believing that they will just go and raid other people. Think of the movie “The purge.” I think I may have seen parts but essentially the gist is one night a year there is a free for all for crime, including murder. People will go crazy. If you look at the collapses of other countries, I mean people are in the streets going nuts.
Don’t think that just because you live here in America, you are safe from that. You aren’t. So be aware now, that there will be groups of looters who will go from store to store, house to house, complex to complex ganging up on others. Prepare for this mentally and physically.
How do you meet other preppers?
If you can, now is a good time to connect with other preppers in your area. Some people won’t share at all that they prep, but I know where I’m at, there is a giant network of preppers who get together, make plans, have radio systems and work together. Online prepping groups are a good start. Word of mouth is another great way to navigate your community and discover other like-minded people.
Surviving against a mob is doable but you need to be prepared. Do you have boards to board up your windows, do you have emergency lighting and know to act like you aren’t home, do you have self-defense, do you have an escape route?
Consider all of these things for yourself and your family. Think, if a mob like the rioters from the streets in downtown Portland in 2020 were marching down the road to your house, what is your plan?
How can you prep in a city?
I believe in scenarios like this if you live in the city, you absolutely need an escape plan immediately if things start to fall. Just, get out of the city. You could hunker down, but you will be up against mobs of people. A community of other preppers, especially while living in a city, would be incredibly valuable.
If you wanted to hunker down, consider a food storage of freeze dried foods. You will need large quantities of food to subsist you in your home so you don’t have to leave or attract attention. Freeze dried food takes up the least amount of space.
There are also the MRE bars that are condense and full of calories. You will want to focus your food storage on this to make eating simple and garbage minimal than if you were cooking with canned items. Water storage is essential. One gallon per day per person is the rule of thumb. So figure out water storage and a collection system if possible.
How to prepare for inflation?
Aside from food shortages and riots, it is important now to start prepping for hyperinflation. If you woke up tomorrow and now a loaf of bread cost $100 because the dollar tanked, would you be able to survive? An important concept to keep in mind here is bartering. Do you have items to trade?
What are good items to barter with?
You will want to keep items that you are able to barter with. People think gold will be useful in this situation. And to some, maybe. But I believe food in a do or die situation will be most valuable along with other survival gear. Here is a good list of items to consider having on hand for your family and maybe extra for bartering:
Canned goods, dried foods, water, honey, sugar, salt, over-the-counter medications, first aid supplies, prescription medications, multi-tools, knives, basic hand tools, duct tape, rope, nails, lighters, matches, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, laundry detergent, batteries, solar-powered or hand-crank flashlights, propane, butane, firewood, charcoal, gasoline, alcohol, cigarettes, warm clothing, blankets, socks, gloves, non-hybrid, non-GMO seeds, ammunition, pepper spray, knowledge and skills in trades.
Cash will be useless if the economy collapses so investing in other things today could be a good idea to diversify your money.
How to prepare for cyber attacks?
If, during the election, or after, there was a cyber attack that took down communications, the internet, and the grid, would you be able to get by? I genuinely wouldn’t put it past the system to pull a stunt like this, so keep this in mind.
This is similar to preparing for total fallout. But have other means of communication on hand like radios, ham radios, and walkie-talkies. You may also want backup power to keep your fridges and freezers running. That will be up to you.
The bottom line of the election is to be prepared. The world is in turmoil right now but you don’t have to be in the trenches with it. You can start preparing today so you don’t have to worry tomorrow, your family can have a plan and food to eat.
I hope this podcast was helpful to get you thinking about how to prepare for an election and how to get prepared today.
