Clear and Present Danger

The rule of law and the Constitutional order that support an open society have just been under attack and will likely be again in the near future. As individuals our rights, liberty, security and ultimately our lives depend on the rule of law.

On the very same day when a crowd assaulted the United States Capitol, two thirds of the Representatives from the then President’s party voted to overthrow the results of the 2020 election in key battleground states. They were joined in that enterprise by eight Senators from their party.

Such political action was in many ways more malicious than the violent takeover of the Capitol, as it attempted to subvert the legal order and the basic tenets of the Constitution. As the Senate Majority Leader said, in his last attempt to sway his own party's Senators from taking the ominous step, the act sought to “override the voters, over rule them, the voters, the States and the courts” [1]. There was no doubt that the attempt violated the Constitution: “[the] Constitution gives us here in Congress a limited role. We cannot simply declare ourselves a National Board of Elections on steroids. The voters, the courts, and the stage have all spoken. They’ve all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our Republic forever.”

Still, the great majority of the Members of Congress from that party voted to do exactly that.

“The voters, the courts, and the stage have all spoken. They’ve all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our Republic forever.”

While the attempt failed, it was due mainly to the fact that the then President’s party did not hold the majority in the House of Representatives.

Thus, the threat is now clear: What will happen in the next Presidential election cycle if, due to a rearrangement of forces in the mid-terms, both the House and the Senate end up controlled by the now ex-President’s party?

The outlook is complicated by the fact that the Representatives and Senators from the now ex-President’s party that opposed, or simply did not go along with, the attempt to overthrow the election results, are expected to be driven out of the party (‘primaried’ as the term goes) by radical followers of the now ex-President, or forced into submission.

Similarly, principled Republicans in the Executive branch, in the Judiciary, and in the State Governments that opposed or did not abet the bold coup attempt, will also be driven out or forcefully converted. What by lucky chance ended up effectively being the last line of defense for the democratic process and the Constitutional order for the 2020 election will thus be likely pulverized way before the next election cycle.

And so we face the challenge that in 2024, or perhaps earlier, the forces that seek to subvert democracy and the rule of law could be powerful enough to accomplish their objective.

The United States as we know it would then cease to exist in substance –even if it were to survive a bit longer in form– and lawlessness would become the defining social factor, permeating through all stages of society, exposing lives, rights and property to the appetites of the criminally powerful.

Such is the kind of threats or risks that law-abiding Americans -whether Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians or Progressives- face. It’s against such threats and risks that we seek to be prepared.

The Free Society Prepper's Mission

If traditional preppers seek to prepare for catastrophic material disasters, a Free Society Prepper seeks to prepare for the catastrophes that could befall upon the fabric of society and the rule of law, and therefore upon ourselves, our family and our means of sustenance.

And the purpose is threefold, of course:

• How do we prepare to prevent those threats from materializing?

• How do we prepare so that if those threats do become reality we can defend –to the best of our ability– our lives, rights and property.

• How do we prepare so that if those threats materialize we can protect and carry forward the products of our era (all the hard-won humanistic, philosophical, political and scientific knowledge and tools that make the heritage of humankind) to make a restoration of civilized life possible, as early and as completely as conditions permit.

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