Why The USPS Matters and Why Trump is Trying to Ruin it

Photo: Morning Brew

The United States Postal Service has been all around the news lately as it is the latest victim of Trump’s criticism. Trump has been slamming both the USPS and mail-in voting in general. He has been (falsely) claiming that massive amounts of fraud happens with mail-in voting. This attack on the USPS is just another desperate grasp for power that is having real consequences for Americans across the country.

One argument that many Trump supporters are throwing out there is that the USPS is losing money every year. What they completely overlook is that the USPS is not a business, but a vital necessity for many Americans. The USPS was not designed to make money, it was created to give access to affordable and reliable shipping to everyone in the country. You wouldn’t say the military is losing money because they are not a business either, they are a service that needs money to run. The USPS does not lose money, it simply costs money to run it.

Along with his verbal assaults on the mail, Trump has been doing his best to sabotage the Postal Service; one of these tactics is his appointment a new leader for the USPS. The newly appointed Postmaster General sucks. He was appointed by Trump after he donated over a million dollars to Trump’s campaign – so clearly not a biased decision by any means.

Louis DeJoy is this fanboy that Trump appointed and he has done nothing but create chaos and confusion in the USPS. He made drastic cuts to the budget and to the staff as “cost cutting measures” which are clearly just ways to slow down the mail. The Trump administration is now using the slowed down mail as an excuse why the USPS can’t handle mail-in voting. They created the problem so that they can then complain about it.

Trump’s main song he is singing is about how fraudulent mail-in voting is. Mail-in voting overall in the US has a fraud rate between 0.00004% and 0.0009%, according to a study done by the Brennan Center for Justice. This is an extremely low number, proving this method of voting is quite safe.

The USPS even stated that if every single American voted by mail; 330 million ballots over the course of the election would be only 75% of what they deliver in a single day. The USPS can clearly handle the amount of mail for mail-in ballots.

So if mail-in voting has no real facts or statistics proving it to be fraudulent, why does Trump feel so determined to prevent it in this election? My biased answer: he is a power hungry racist asshole that refuses to leave office. A more unbiased answer: Black communities, underprivileged communities, minority communities, and more are reliant on the USPS to vote and this is Trump’s ploy at voter suppression (not a new tactic in America). People in these communities often times work more than one job, so they find it difficult to receive time off to vote because they are so busy with all of their various jobs. Mail-in voting allows them to continue to work and support their families while still voicing their opinions and exercising their RIGHT to vote.

By appointing a Trump fanboy as the new head of the USPS, Trump is clearly pushing his agenda to disenfranchise voters from voting him out of office. These communities are predominately Democrat so taking away their ability to vote by mail is preventing a lot of them from voting at all – a move to ensure he wins this election unfairly.

So many Americans also use the USPS as a means to receive critical life sustaining medications. The USPS is the only delivery service that will go to ANY address, regardless of how remote it is. People living in rural communities rely on the USPS to deliver them their mail and important medications because other mail services simply will not deliver to them.

The Postal Service is a critical public service that desperately needs proper funding. Lives are quite literally on the line. Trump specifically excluded them from the CARES package, refusing to sign it if the USPS was included. Many of his own family members and friends received money through the CARES Act but he legitimately refused to help fund this important service. Instead, he hired an obviously biased person that has simply made matters worse.

The situation with the USPS is simple, it is a public service that is critical and essential to countless Americans. There is a lot going on revolving around this situation so I encourage everyone to look more into it. One thing to also look into more is the mandate put in place during the Bush administration requiring the pre-payments of all pensions, something that no other major company of government agency does.

One last thing worth mentioning is that when questioned on if he knew how much it cost to mail a postcard, DeJoy laughed and said he did not know. Appointing an obviously biased person to a position they are not qualified for and know nothing about is called the Trump Classic. With that being said, I urge all of you to go buy some stamps.

Behrmann, Savannah. “What’s Going on with the Post Office? Here’s What We Know.” USA TODAY, 13 Aug. 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/13/us-postal-service-whats-going-post-office-what-we-know/3360565001/. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

Farley, Robert. “Trump Campaign Exaggerates Potential for Mail-In Voting Fraud After Election.” FactCheck.Org, The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, 14 Aug. 2020, www.factcheck.org/2020/08/trump-campaign-exaggerates-potential-for-mail-in-voting-fraud-after-election/. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

MUELLER, ELEANOR, and KELLIE MEJDRICH. “Postal Service Cuts Imperil Ladder to Middle Class for Many Black Americans.” POLITICO, 18 Aug. 2020, www.politico.com/news/2020/08/18/postal-service-cuts-imperil-ladder-to-middle-class-for-many-black-americans-398190. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

Noah, Trevor. “Trump Attacks Vote-by-Mail and the U.S. Postal Service | The Daily Social Distancing Show.” YouTube, 12 Aug. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndHQzMYNA40. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

ONYENACHO, TRACEY. “The USPS’ Lack of Support Will Hit People of Color Hardest.” Www.Colorlines.Com, 11 May 2020, www.colorlines.com/articles/usps-lack-support-will-hit-people-color-hardest. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

Team Reality Check. “Does US Postal Voting Lead to ‘Tremendous Fraud’?” BBC News, 15 July 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53353404. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

Viebeck, Elise. “Minuscule Number of Potentially Fraudulent Ballots in States with Universal Mail Voting Undercuts Trump Claims about Election Risks.” Washington Post, 8 June 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/minuscule-number-of-potentially-fraudulent-ballots-in-states-with-universal-mail-voting-undercuts-trump-claims-about-election-risks/2020/06/08/1e78aa26-a5c5-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

‌