Author details prep for 'full-on societal meltdown' as Trump’s second presidency draws closer

31 December 2024

President-elect Donald Trump's second term is less than a month away. And when he is inaugurated on January 20, 2025, Congress will have small Republican majorities in both of its chambers.

In an article published by The New Republic on the last day of 2024, journalist/author Liza Featherstone describes a New Year's resolution: closer bonding with friends and neighbors in case 2025 and the second Trump Administration bring civil unrest.

"Normally, just like everyone else, I just resolve to spend more time at the gym," Featherstone says of her New Year's resolutions. "But as the first Trump inauguration loomed, in early January 2017, my New Year's resolutions were higher stakes than usual. I knew that I would have to volunteer more of my time to local politics. I would also try to look after my own sanity: I would read more novels, spend less time online and more time outdoors. But, while I was concerned about bettering the world without losing my mind, I wondered even more how to prepare for the impending societal collapse I feared was coming."

Featherstone adds, "I feared Trump's presidency vastly increased the likelihood of civil war, meltdown of the government, climate disaster, or collapse of the international order. I did not consider moving to the country, building a cabin, and learning to kill deer and make venison; nor did I price the cost of bunkers on the internet. Instead, I joined my neighborhood food co-op. I figured that whatever was coming, we'd need to strengthen our local institutions to get through it…. Now, as in 2020, many are stockpiling goods — bottled water, canned food — in case of a full-on societal meltdown."

Politically, Featherstone is on the left. But she pays attention to preppers of different political persuasions, noting that they fear a "SHTF" (s--- hits the fan) scenario.

"Hoarding," she observes, is "a way of managing our fears — not only about the apocalyptic events that may come, but of facing them alone."

One step Featherstone took in preparation for Trump's first term, she notes, was joining a food co-op — and she's still a member eight years later.

"To be clear, no matter who is president, there is hunger in our society and a high risk of pandemics and superstorms," Featherstone argues. "But, then as now, having an erratic, far-right anti-government narcissist in the White House necessarily leaves our society less resilient and puts more burden on us to make contingency plans…. Bring that canned food to your community fridge — and ask how else you can help build resilience with your neighbors in case 'SHTF.'"

Liza Featherstone's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.

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