Rhetoric: language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable
The art or skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively, especially as a way to persuade or influence people
It’s a presidential election year. You will hear a lot of rhetoric, and some of it will not be honest or reasonable, and this from both parties. Will politics have any effect on you as a Prepper? The outcome of any election, whether it is at the local, state, or federal level can have an impact on how you live and how you prepare going forward.
Most of you are aware of the convoluted laws concerning rainwater or runoff collection in many states. Is it legal, can you be arrested, are their fines, can I do it in my own backyard, for example. The questions are there, but the answers provided are anything but definitive answers. This is just one example of how politics can have an influence on how you prepare for a crisis.
Rules and laws are courtesy of your elected officials, so yes, politics will have an impact on your lives. Can you create a pond on your property to water livestock, can you dam up a stream or collect runoff on your property and so forth. Well the answer is in the laws written by your elected officials.
There are laws that govern all of your actions and/or prohibit certain actions on your own property, all of which are decided by the very politicians voted in by the citizens of a city, of the state and of the nation.
Once in office, politicians and the President of the United States get to decide who rules the benches at the federal level to include the Supreme Court. Judges set precedents, or case law as it were, so going forward other cases are weighed against case law, in other words, what precedent has been established. Once the Supreme Court rules, that’s it, no more appeals, nowhere higher to go, the final word has been spoken. Those on the benches at the federal level can have an impact on your life, and those choosing the judges may not have your best interests at heart.
Obviously people are split, one side wants a ruling this way while the other obviously wants the opposite ruling. You for example, may decide it is a good thing that composting or owning chickens is not allowed in some areas, like a person’s own backyard. Yes, some cities have tried to ban and some have banned composting in particular human waste composting and have banned chickens in a person’s own yard. A latrine is illegal in other words in some towns or municipalities. Regardless of how you feel about it, next time they may ban something you feel strongly about doing.
There are limits of course to everything, so keep that in mind. You have the right to own a firearm, for example, but you do not have the right to shoot it randomly in town or at others for fun or sport.
You fight hard and call your elected officials to encourage them to vote for a ban on someone else’s rights, and Okay, so you win. People are not allowed to compost nor have chickens in their own backyard.
Well, what happens when someone decides it is a public health issue to see people eating in public, it traumatizes overweight people, and it victimizes them, and encourages them to overeat, creating an even bigger obesity problem, which ultimately drives up the cost of health care.
Some politician hears about this group or person with a grievance against eating in public and so then, gets the notion to present a law, which bans public eating and eating in cars. Crazier things have happened, but now your ban on composting and chickens, which set a precedent is coming back to bite you.
The squeaky door gets the grease, so if a small minority of people yells loud enough that they are offended by something, by a name, a gesture, an action, a symbol or something they simply dreamed up, some politician will take up the cause. Take it up, because they fear they will lose a vote, or do it to stir up controversy to get their name in the news and their face in front of a camera.
Someone doesn’t want an American flag flown at someone’s home or that the Gadsden Flag “Don’t Tread on Me” is racist, for example, (A real Complaint has been filed about the Gadsden Flag Being racist).
What’s next, no perfume in public, no red hair dye, no colored clothing because it can cause seizures in some people when they stare at it? The list goes on, and on, and so where would it stop.
Once you start ruling people’s individual lives to such an extent it will never end and eventually those that applauded, because someone else lost a right, will eventually feel the negative impact of some crazy law that was passed that takes away one of their rights. Politics and prepping, yes you have to pay attention.
It all depends on whose ox was gored when it comes to politics in many cases.
We can debate the gun issue for days on end, and there is not enough paper to argue it out one way or another, but it is a so-called hot button issue that while it has been decided by the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court will change judges eventually. The next challenge to a person’s gun rights to reach them may result in a different ruling.
It matters who sits on the Supreme Court and who gets to decide that, well the President of the United States and the U.S. Senate decides. So if your party rules, then they decide the next justice who sits on the high court.
Martial Law, which party is more likely to enact it during a crisis, and do you want to see it enacted. You may have some ideas but nothing is clear yet because of rhetoric. Politicians will say anything to get elected and then the game changes.
You can look at it this way. A cook working in a restaurant has a few gripes, things that management does have an effect on their job. They mumble and grumble and say, “If I was running this place, things would be different”. Well the cook may have problems, but the cook is not the only employee with problems.
Management has to look at the big picture. It is not just a one-issue problem. If the cook found himself or herself in charge, they may have to rethink things, because now they have more information and decisions must be made to benefit the restaurant as a whole, and not just the individual.
Politicians, especially presidential candidates will promise the moon to voters while not seeing the big picture, because they have never held the office before. Once in office, however, they realize they are not the ultimate power, and the few significant issues they ran on to get votes, have now manifested into thousands, and so now the problems of the groups or people they pandered to seem insignificant compared to the more serious problems the country faces, deadly serious problems.
They have to work with congress, congress writes the laws, and if you as president do not have an overwhelming majority your ideas are just that, ideas. Reality bites and in some cases, will force an executive order, which is null and void the minute you are no longer president if the newly elected president gets their pen and phone out.
The country will change regardless of who is elected this November. It may change to your liking, or not, but change it will. You have to vote. Otherwise, your voice is not heard. You can email or call your Senator and Representative and express your opinion on issues, and this will have an impact on whether they vote for or against certain laws. An engaged public can make a difference.
The government may decide at some point if the economy collapses that private individuals cannot own physical gold, or can only own a certain amount, for example. This of course would be decided by executive order (the President) or by laws passed by congress. Yes politics can and will affect Prepping.