The Post Office Trap!

Right-wingers really have it in for the Post Office. Specifically, they believe mail-in ballots are a sure-fire way to ensure Democratic cheating in the upcoming election this November. As such, they attack the Post Office itself, calling it a dysfunctional institution and insisting that we get rid of it, altogether. Trump, especially, wants to see the Post Office fail, and thus deny a major means for Democrats to cast their votes less than 100 days from now.

For now, I'll abandon the bullshit arguments about how mail-in balloting somehow makes it easier to cheat. It simply doesn't. Instead, I'll focus on how Trump's attempt to undermine the Post Office is a trap.

Small businesses everywhere rely upon the Post Office every day. More e-commerce packages reach homes through the Post Office than through any other institution. It is a less expensive option than UPS and FedEx for small packages which are in no real hurry, and for most small commerce, it is still the primary means of shipping items. And before you argue that Spotify, Pandora, Netflix and Kindle have made hard-copies of media unnecessary, please bear in mind that many people still love to own hard copies, and have no intention of giving them up soon.

Even UPS and FedEx rely upon the Post Office to get their packages the last few miles to their destinations. Why? Because it saves them time, and it saves them gasoline. The Post Office is the only institution with the expertise, and the infrastructure, to guarantee delivery to every inaccessible nook and cranny of the United States.

Right now, more people rely on the Post Office than ever before, as e-commerce sales go up due to Covid-19 quarantines.

Small USPS packages are the lifeblood of small stores and restaurants who desperately rely on it to save money on shelf goods, spices for recipes, specialty soaps, or other small businesses that live on Amazon, Etsy or eBay. Think of all the mom-and-pop businesses, already hit hard by Covid-19, who will suffer if what little money they were able to save suddenly gets eaten up having to pay more for every single item sold online - just because Republicans decided that USPS is no longer an option they approve of!

It will bring down the economy even further - just in time for the November election!

Republicans first started really attacking the Post Office back in the Bush 43 years. Republicans already hated the Post Office for having Union jobs which were unassailable. But when the Post Office began doing so well, it threatened to replace its entire fleet of trucks with electric vehicles in order to save money, the GOP really got PO'ed. Horrendous horrors! Electric postal vehicles? The oil lobby couldn't have that, could it? So, they required the Post Office to fully fund its pensions out to 75 years - something no private company ever has to do. This guaranteed the Post Office would be unable to draw a profit most years, and sure enough, plans for an electric fleet of trucks went out the window. Furthermore, they restricted price hikes beyond a certain point each year, guaranteeing that the Post Office could not capitalize on peak periods, such as Christmas, to draw a higher profit. Since then, Republicans have been attacking the Post Office for being unable to break even every year.

In other words, first they broke the Post Office's legs, then attacked it for being lame.

Now, Louis DeJoy, a Trump mega-donor and sycophant, is Postmaster General, and he has been proposing changes and slowdowns which have fouled up postal delivery - which perhaps, he thinks he wants. Certainly, Trump is convinced he wants it. The USPS is facing a huge budgetary shortfall this year, which threatens to undermine it altogether - right when we need it the most.

Correction, right when the economy needs it most.

We need the Post Office for much more than the election. We need it for Halloween and Christmas!

IF Trump wants any hope at all of winning the election in November, he must fully fund the Post Office, and do it NOW! Of course, that means that the mail-in ballots he fears will boost the Democratic Party vote will be unstoppable, but then, if he deserves to win, he will simply have to win over the votes of those Americans, too. It's a simple formula: Win more votes than the other guy.

If his strategy to win is preventing those who disapprove of you from getting to the polls, he simply doesn't deserve to win in the first place.

Meanwhile, it's a classic Catch-22. If Trump undermines the Post Office, the economy suffers even more than it already has, and he loses the election. If he funds the Post Office, and mail-in ballots pour in from all over the country, he loses anyway.

Pick your poison, President Trump. If I were you, I'd fully fund the Post Office and take the chance that it will help the economy recover in time for November.

Eric

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