Dear MoveOn member,
The U.S. Postal Service could be dead in three months unless Congress
provides emergency funding to shore up this crucial public service.^1
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin, and the Republicans are refusing to include the Postal Service in
any coronavirus relief legislation, because privatizing mail delivery has
been a long-term goal of the conservative movement, and they see this
crisis as their opportunity to kill off the Postal Service once and for
all.^2
Meanwhile, Donald Trump hates the Postal Service for his own sociopathic
reason: The Postal Service delivers packages for Amazon, whose founder,
Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post, a newspaper that hasn't been
afraid to publish hard-hitting journalism on the Trump administration.^3
So, in the middle of a global pandemic and the worst economic crisis since
the Great Depression, Trump is threatening to bankrupt a critically
important public service to exact revenge for his petty grievances.^4
Democrats are pushing hard to get emergency funding for the Postal Service
included in the next coronavirus relief bill, and MoveOn is launching a
digital ad campaign to demand that Trump and the Republicans stop blocking
Postal Service relief funding. To make sure they can't ignore us, we will
run targeted ads in rural districts that would be hit hardest by the
Postal Service shutdown—communities that Trump must win big to have any
chance of re-election.
On average, MoveOn's monthly donors chip in about $10 a
month. Can you chip in $10 a month to help launch and
sustain a digital ad campaign calling on Congress to include desperately
needed aid to the United States Postal Service in the next stimulus
package and to continue to fight to save the Post Office all the way until
Election Day?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
The death of the Postal Service would be a crushing blow to Americans
desperately trying to get by while sheltering in place.
Rural communities might never bounce back without the guarantee of
reliable, standard-rate mail service. Small businesses in rural
communities that rely on mail-order customers would go bankrupt. And
people who live in these communities would be unable to get the essential
deliveries—including medicine—they count on the Postal Service to
deliver.^5
The death of the Postal Service would also eliminate any kind of
vote-by-mail program, disenfranchising millions of voters in November. And
postal workers—39% of whom are people of color—would be left jobless.^6
Most Americans don't know it, but the Postal Service doesn't receive a
single taxpayer dollar.^7 It is entirely funded by revenue from the sales
of stamps and postage. But just like so many other businesses, the Postal
Service has seen its revenue collapse during this pandemic. As a result,
the entire operation could go bust by September, according to the
postmaster general and the postal workers union.
It's especially tragic considering that postal workers, like doctors,
nurses, and other essential workers, are getting sick and dying while
working on the front lines of this pandemic to keep the rest of us
afloat.^8
Just imagine what life would be like right now if the mail stopped coming
or if the only way to send or receive mail was to pay FedEx rates. It
would be devastating. But Trump can't get over the fact that The
Washington Post doesn't give him nonstop positive coverage. And
privatization of mail delivery would be a massive boon to his corporate
donors—at the expense of everyday Americans.
The next coronavirus relief bill could get passed as early as this week,
and funding for the Postal Service must be included in it. With your help,
we will launch a digital ad campaign calling out Trump and McConnell for
blocking this desperately needed funding.
Can you chip in $10 a month to help launch and sustain a
digital ad campaign, and keep it running for as long as it takes to stop
Donald Trump from shutting down the United States Postal
Service? (The average gift from a MoveOn monthly donor is about $10
a month, but whatever you can afford will go a long
way.)
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly to help save the U.S. Postal Service.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Kelly, Seth, Jenn, Lisa, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "The Head of the Postal Workers Union Says the Postal Service Could Be
Dead in Three Months," In These Times, April 16, 2020
[link removed]
2. "White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by
coronavirus," The Washington Post, April 11, 2020
[link removed]
3. "Trump's Vendetta Against Jeff Bezos Could Destroy the Postal Service,"
Vanity Fair, April 13, 2020
[link removed]
4. "Coronavirus job losses could total 47 million, unemployment rate may
hit 32 percent, Fed estimates," NBC News, March 30, 2020
[link removed]
5. "If the US Postal Service fails, rural America will suffer the most,"
Vox, April 16, 2020
[link removed]
6. "Workforce Diversity and Inclusiveness," U.S. Postal Service, accessed
April 18, 2020
[link removed]
7. "The U.S. Postal Service is Owned by the People—Let's Keep it That
Way," AFL-CIO, April 23, 2019
[link removed]
8. "The U.S. Postal Service Needs Help Now: 'The Situation Is Absolutely
Dire,'" New York, April 17, 2020
[link removed]
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day
by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage,
defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's
pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must
never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than
ever. Will you stand with us?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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