Louis DeJoy, a Donald Trump flunky, was appointed to be Postmaster General despite him having ZERO experience at the Post Office—which is unheard of. He was, however, a major donor to the Republican Party and to Trump’s campaign. DeJoy and his wife also have serious conflicts of interest, since they both have assets between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in USPS competitors or contractors.
But really, how much damage could he do? Well, in case you haven’t noticed, quite a damn bit.
This is bad, folks. REAL BAD!
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) now has a serious backlog of letters and packages, which are piling up at distribution centers. Despite the increase in packages during the pandemic, Trump’s new Postmaster General has cut hours and banned all overtime, and is also placing fewer trucks on the road. He even changed priorities in mailing.
Postal leaders are already complaining about sabotage. The American Postal Workers Union has been sounding the alarm, with the president saying she is “terrified” of how the sabotage is going to affect the upcoming election.
Then, on Friday, Dejoy took out the machete and started cutting. Twenty-three executives with decades of experience were reassigned, and power is now consolidated around DeJoy.
Coincidentally, this year will be a record year for voting by mail, which Trump is doing everything he can to undermine. In fact, Trump admitted that mail delays will help him in his election. Of course, it’s also a census year, which Trump is also doing everything he can to undermine. We need more mail carriers, not fewer, although DeJoy has instituted both a hiring freeze and requested future buyouts—two things Democrats in Congress specifically asked him NOT to do. The results are obvious.
This may be Trump’s doing, but Republicans are completely on board. Not one Republican has spoken out against this. It’s up to Democrats to save the post office. We also have to save our democracy and our republic, so might as well just add it to the list.
In the meantime, sound the alarm. Tell your GOP representative that this is NOT cool, and that you are watching. Tell your Democratic representative to be more vocal about this. Democrats are all over the map on several issues, but we must focus! We need public hearings, and we need to demand more funding (along with safeguards that DeJoy will use it as ordered) as a top priority! This is worth a major fight. People in this country love their mail, and we need to make it clear that one party is on the side of saving it while the other side is out to destroy it!
Here’s a state-by-state scorecard on how prepared your state is for vote-by-mail. If there are drop boxes, encourage people to use those and promote their locations. If you are doing it late, please deliver your mail-in ballot in person if you have to. If you can’t, please consider using certified, priority or express mail so there is proof of delivery and when it was mailed.
Thirty-four states require that they receive ballots by Election Day—a policy which, under Trump and DeJoy, will cause millions to be thrown out. Democratic leaders need to be pushing for a law that allows votes to be counted afterwards, and force Republicans to fight them on this. In the meantime, encourage everyone you know who isn’t voting in-person NOT TO WAIT! Vote as soon as you are able.
I know it gets old that we have to fight for our very democracy on what is a seemingly day-to-day basis, but this is who Trump is, and what Trump wants. Let’s go all in, every single day, until we can finally rest—the day after November 3.
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Saturday, Aug 8, 2020 · 9:26:07 PM +00:00 · SemDem
This just won't stop. Trump is mulling multiple executive actions from ordering the postal service to "not deliver certain ballots" to forcing local officials from counting them after Election Day, even if the state law says otherwise.
