What would Benjamin Franklin say?
Like so many Americans, I’ve never outgrown the fun of seeing what’s in my mailbox every day – and, even if it’s a bill and it’s a rainy day, it’s still a ritual I enjoy. But learning that Donald Trump wants to shut down our Postal Service and quadruple postal rates – largely because he feels it’s a threat to his re-election, I figured I’d better do some research on why.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
· I’m not the only one - 91% of Americans list the Post Office as their favorite Agency according to the Pew Trust Survey.
· Designed by Ben Franklin, it has served us every day since then – yes, snow, heat or gloom of night included.
· Nearly 1/3 of all Americans pay their bills through the mail and 20% of all prescriptions are delivered to the patient via the mail - 1.2 billion in 2019. Nearly 100% of the Veteran’s Administration prescriptions are distributed by mail.
· The USPS delivers safely and reliably to rural communities where other carriers may not go and the service is often referred to as a “lifeline” for those communities.
· 18% of Americans pay their bills by mail, a larger group than those who pay by online banking.
· Trump says he wants to quadruple the price of Postal Service postage prices because Amazon is winning the delivery derby. In fact, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the USPS serves Amazon, Fed Ex and UPS as the “last site delivery service” and it is their most profitable product. Odds are very high, that Amazon box was delivered to you by the USPS – mine was just yesterday.
· Both UPS and FedEx charge considerably more to ship your packages than the USPS.
· During the pandemic the USPS is losing money on letters (fewer are being sent) but making more money on packages as housebound citizens order more products delivered to their homes.
· They delivered those famous “stimulus” checks.
· They are the core of the $1.6 trillion mailing industry which employs 7 million Americans.
· And…they have a history of delivering ballots, even if the postage isn’t the correct amount.
So, if Americans love their Postal Service so much, why does Donald Trump hate it so much? What makes him want to quadruple the postal rate to bankrupt it, and appoint a very generous Republican donor as the new Postmaster General to head the agency and make it meet Trump’s standards?
It’s THE ELECTION and Jeff Bezos!! It’s those ballots the USPS makes sure are delivered…and that Bezos is making money. Honest – that’s what it is. He’s not capable of any deeper thinking.
First – he hates (really jealous of) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and thinks quadrupling the postal rates will hurt or ruin Bezos and a few other monumentally large companies. Perhaps if he gave the service extra funding he could create a more level playing field.
Second – the Republican Congress of 2006 created a nightmarish financial scenario for the service. According to the NALC, this congress imposed “a crushing mandate…requiring it to prefund decades of future health care premiums for retired USPS employees in advance.” This was never required of any other organization and accounts for “100% of USPS losses between 2013 and 2018.” The NALC points out, however…”on an operational basis, the Postal Service has been profitable for most of the past decade.” In March, the White House killed a bipartisan bill to give the postal service $13 billion dollars. Trump could have bailed out the USPS the same way he did his “favored” airline and hospitality industries.
Third – His greatest fear is being defeated substantially and embarrassingly. This is one of the most insecure people on the planet and he feels every critique is a deep insult at which he has to strike out. He thinks the postal service could be the engine of his defeat and he wants to stop mail ballots. He’s been quoted saying that if this election uses mail ballots, the Republicans will lose and it will destroy their party – forever!
He’s going to try everything he can to prevent mail balloting – even if it exposes his citizens to crowds to long lines and Covid 19. We’ve recently seen, people dying at the hands of his government doesn’t bother him if it suits his needs. He recently threatened to withhold election funding from Nevada and Michigan who are moving to increased voting by mail. He accused them of supporting voter fraud and blasted them in the media. Never one to “learn” before striking out, when he was told the states are sending applications, not ballots, he backed off his threats/harassment.
He’s busy trying to convince Republicans that mailed ballots are fraudulent even though that is widely disputed. He stoutly maintains there are kitchen tables piled high with fraudulent ballots that are “scooped up and dumped” at polling places. He rails that they’re “phony” and there’s no way to prove they’re authentic. The records in VBM (vote by mail) states, show it to be a reliable, very low fraud, understandable method of voting that would be an especially good choice during the pandemic..
Kimberly Wehle, in Politico lists a “range of tools” Trump has that he can attempt to make voting more difficult, including:
· Anticipating a second Covid 19 surge in fall, he could issue a national quarantine forcing voters to stay home on Election Day,
· Continuing suits against states in those states that try to make voting easier, hoping to tie the issue up in the courts,
· Pressuring his base state officials to make voting more difficult by reducing the number of polling places, shortening hours, restricting VBM, and…
· Portraying voting by mail as fraudulent.
In the primarily western states, mail balloting has been used for years. In 1996 Oregon became the first exclusively ‘vote by mail’ ballot and their officials state there has been no notable ballot fraud. In fact, according to Amber McReynolds, CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, if nationwide mail balloting is instituted, the postal service across the remaining states will need to tighten their procedures and emulate the practices found in our western states where vote by mail is common and often the standard practice.
But bottom line, what Trump fears most is that, especially in the Southern states, VBM would short circuit all the voter suppression methods used for so many years. They want to block or reduce the vote of minorities, women and Democrats and this is the method they’ve chosen. Voters wouldn’t be asked to produce extra documents, wait in long lines and be subject to misinformation and harassment. They could just vote, in secret and without fear of retribution.
The Republicans have mastered gerrymandering and it changed the political landscape. Voting by mail could change the landscape again – in a different direction. In California, our voting procedures routinely run smoothly and discrepancies or fraud are the rarity. We’ve never had hanging “chads” or seen “vote collectors” stealing primarily minority people’s ballots. As the Republican polling numbers continue to dip, wouldn’t it be wonderful if southern and midwestern voters could know their ballots/votes were secure from voting day irregularities and fraud.
My research convinces me we should help other states adopt voting by mail – it will affect us all.
The next time you see your mail carrier, say thank you.