LETTER: Trust USPS, even if Trump does not

To the editor:

“If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting,” then-President Donald Trump said to Fox Business on Aug. 13, 2020, as he openly described his/the GOP plan to disenfranchise voters during the 2020 election by starving the United States Postal Service’s budget.

Is the “post office” broken? The most recent Pew Research survey ranking government agencies once again placed the U.S. Postal Service at the very top. Ninety-one percent of respondents are satisfied with the USPS. How often do we see that kind of consensus anymore?

The USPS is a top employer of veterans. Anywhere across our country, a vet can find work that pays a living wage with benefits. It’s a bridge for reentering civilian life. Slinging mug at the USPS is, by extension, an attack on the integrity of the many veterans it employs. Personally, I trust our vets more than a politician trying to game the system at election time.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, GOP megadonor, is Trump’s own appointee. Trump launched a relentless smear campaign against mail-in voting. DeJoy obediently dismantled sorting machines and removed drop boxes to slow the vote — while millions of Americans were reluctant to vote in person due to COVID-19.

DeJoy also banned overtime to ensure carriers couldn’t keep up with the mail volume. U.S. Judge Stanley Bastian ordered DeJot to stop his corrupt actions, finding, “it is easy to conclude that the recent postal service’s changes is an intentional effort on the part of the current administration to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of upcoming local, state and federal elections.”

At this time, Louis DeJoy refuses to resign, and there is no mechanism to remove him. We have a defeated former president still railing against the USPS still overseen by his pick. We have politicians crying foul because they fear losing their future races should more Americans rely upon the safety and ease of mail-in voting.

Then there’s the rest of us who trust the post office to deliver our medications and to help us pay our bills, but now we’re not supposed to trust it at election time. Have you asked your carrier if he or she diverted ballots in the 2020 election? We don’t ask because we trust the USPS and because the question itself is absurd.

Susan Younger, Shawano