Politics and Preparedness

Introduction

 So, yeah, when I (re)started this blog I'd made a small commitment to avoid politics and keep the focus on preparedness as a whole, but it cannot be denied that politics can and will effect your need and ability to remain prepared for disruptive events. With that said I thought I'd share a little of my perspective regarding politics and why, as someone into preparedness, you should be aware of them. Also, I'm refusing to take a side regarding the political spectrum, here. This is a broad-scope discussion on the topic and believe the topic to be important regardless of your own personal political sway.

Why Politics, and Awareness of Them, Is Critical

Politics will affect your preparedness plan. There's really no way around it. Whether it's at a local, state, regional, or federal level; rules, laws, regulations, and requirements will dictate your decisions will be numerous. As I type this very post, serious changes to gun control and firearm laws (yes, the biggie topic) are being considered by the current administration. Again, regardless of what your political bent is and depending on the affect of those laws, they may drastically limit your ability to purchase or carry a firearm. This, in turn, could affect your security and security operations plans.

Another example which I addressed on a Twitter feed had to do with local laws limiting or even prohibiting the use of rain collection systems (usually restricted due to drought, fire-threat, or other environmental factors in which rain water is needed by the local landscape). The inability to collect rain water will often force someone to re-think their water solution preparedness.

Steps to Address Politics

Many, many people disagree with laws and restrictions such as what I called out above as well as countless others, but what can you do? Well, you could go against the law to avoid all the restrictions and risk fines or jail time (not recommended). You could mitigate the impact by coming up with alternative plans and options (recommended). And/or you could use your power of the vote and in public citizen forums to make your voice heard, either in favor or against laws and political rulesets (also recommended). 

Regarding that last comment, of course. your voice/vote is heard 'louder' and more effective the closer to home you are.  To that end it's important to remember how much influence you have as far as politics are concerned. You may very much want one candidate to win at a federal level, but you really only do get one, single vote out of, literally, millions. On the other hand your vote for a county commissioner may be important enough to sway the whole election. It's also essential that you maintain a balanced perspective while at the same time remaining closely aware of politicians, their views and values, and potential laws and regulations coming down the pipe.  Lastly, you will want to keep a realistic view on what the majority says, thinks, or feels, at least as much as possible. This is hard to gauge even on the Internet as some groups and peoples tend to be more 'loud-mouthed' than others. There is such a thing as the silent majority out there. 

In the end there's a lot of stress around politics, so keeping a level head and understanding what you can or cannot control are critical in keeping that stress and anxiety at low levels.