{"id":11609,"date":"2020-08-18T11:27:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T18:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/?p=11609"},"modified":"2026-04-03T19:11:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:11:55","slug":"trumps-push-to-privatize-the-usps-is-a-direct-threat-to-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/trumps-push-to-privatize-the-usps-is-a-direct-threat-to-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Trumps duw om de USPS te privatiseren is een directe bedreiging voor de democratie"},"content":{"rendered":"

My maternal grandfather was born in 1914 and served in the Army during World War II. When he returned from the war in 1944, he took a job with the U.S. Postal Service as a \u201cmailman.\u201d He worked as a letter carrier, eventually becoming a supervisor, and was an active member of the Association of Letter Carriers for his entire 30+ year career. The job was a respectable occupation that supported a family of four and formed a large part of his identity and community of friends.<\/p>\n

The USPS has favorable support from over 91% of Americans\u2014unusually high for any other federal agency. Autocrat Trump, without filter as usual, recently admitted on Fox Business that he plans to starve the U.S. Postal Service\u00a0of $25 billion in necessary funding that Democrats had proposed as part of coronavirus relief negotiations in a blatant admission that he is leading one of the most dangerous voter suppression attacks in our nation\u2019s history. \u201cThey need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots\u201d come November, Trump said. \u201cIf they don\u2019t get those two items, that means you can\u2019t have universal mail-in voting because they\u2019re not equipped.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is absolutely shocking\u2014a U.S. \u201cpresident\u201d not only repeatedly appointing corrupt cronies to destroy the agencies they are appointed to run, but also purposely defunding and starving many critical federal agencies that support our democratic institutions (imperfect, but better than many). And many of these corporate thieves are overt in their intent. Louis DeJoy, appointed to the position of Postmaster General, has between 30 to 75 million dollars in assets derived from competitors of the USPS[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The speed with which they are mobilizing to cripple the Postal Service before the election is even more shocking, especially when compared to the Administration\u2019s inability to mount any effective coordinated response to the pandemic. Portland and Eugene, Oregon (where I live) have documented mysterious trucks showing up and removing mailboxes and mail-sorting machines from our mostly progressive and\/or Democrat-leaning communities. Rural and\/or low-income communities and tribal lands\u2014places without widespread access to the internet\u2014rely heavily on the USPS for affordable access to information, connections, and outside resources because private profit-driven corporations like UPS and FedEx won\u2019t deliver. In addition to the threat on our right to vote this fall, gutting the USPS will also disparately impact the poor, the elderly, people with disabilities, Black and Latinx community members, incarcerated people and their families, as well as those living in remote areas, who rely on the USPS to deliver their medications, PPE, food and supplies during the pandemic, and other government benefits.<\/p>\n

And like my grandfather, who began his lifelong career in the post office after he returned from war, the USPS continues to be the single largest employer of veterans in the United States. Trump is purposefully taking those jobs away from veterans and others during a Great Recession and record unemployment.<\/p>\n

So. We all need to do something about this crisis. Here are a few suggestions.<\/p>\n