Redoubt

"The time to Get Out of Dodge has arrived says Survival Blog editor James Rawles, the survival retreat consultant and doomer author in last Monday's lead article, Move to the Mountain States—The American Redoubt. Such a proposal is not new, it's a long-standing staple among survivalists actually, but Mr. Rawles is the widely accepted center of gravity for mainline survivalism and his opinion carries real weight. In his words,

Consider my paradigm fully shifted. I'm now urging that folks Get Out of Dodge for political reasons—not just for the family preparedness issues that I've previously outlined. There comes a time, after a chain of abuses when good men must take action.

Using the phrase "voting with our feet" made famous by fleeing East Germans during the Cold War, he suggests a self-evacuation of like-minded souls and recommends the area encompassed by eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. It's terrain Tito would have chosen. Mr. Rawles has never disclosed his own location but many believe it to be in the rugged Idaho-Montana area. Interested parties can keep up with further developments at survivalblog.com, which is easily the most complete and authoritative on-line prepper reference. Kellene Bishop at Preparedness Pro has some thoughts to offer, and Chuck Baldwin, who made the move some time ago, also has some remarks.

His article concludes with speculation about the redoubt's prospects, his reasons for choosing the states he did and what the redoubt movement is and is not. Those looking for patriotic but otherwise '60s style communes will discover Mr. Rawles has no tolerance for such nonsense, he's looking for committed, traditional Christians and Jews whose prime candidates would be the immovably independent, armed farmer-carpenters in woodland pattern coveralls who can quote appropriate lines from Common Sense while hilling potatoes. He sternly warns of troubles and setbacks and unrelenting hard work.

Expect disinformation about this redoubt from the usual suspects, with sly misreadings of everything from Galt's Gulch to Prester John, sprinkled with tales of John Noyes-like malevolency, the final product presented as a sort of Redneck Rainbow Gathering or a Red Dawn theme park for unreconstructed cold warriors. There's no lower limit to what the truly malignant may say. These are depths best left unplumbed. Somehow we believe Mr. Rawles, a former intelligence officer, has considered all this"