People like the Post Office, especially now. It's how we get stuff.
Trump looks bad on this one.
"Two of the items are the Post Office and the $3.5 billion for mail-in voting. Now, 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, they just can't have it."
Trump to Maria Bartiromo, on Fox Business Network
This blog has given grudging respect and credit to Donald Trump for his political and marketing skill. He understood Americans--a lot of them, anyway--better than did Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
But he is screwing up on the Post Office messaging. He forgot to be hypocritical. It would have been very possible for Trump to have dismantled and privatized the Post Office over the course of a presidential term, but to have done so would require him to pretend the changes were all about efficiency, helping the Post Office do its job better. Outsource functions, close offices, consolidate processing center--he could have arranged for any of these things.
We want delivery to be better. We want the mail delivered faster, more reliably. Trump said aloud what he really intended, that thing that should have been kept secret and denied. He said he was hoping to starve the Post Office so they couldn't do its job. He allowed the Postmaster to say that they would treat ballots as second class mail, letters that needn't be delivered.
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign is filing lawsuits trying to stop states from expanding vote by mail. This morning he spoke to Fox and Friends for most of an hour, moving from subject to subject in near stream-of-consciousness. I write this at 5:55 a.m. Pacific Time and he just got off the air. In the hours ahead the media will describe it as an unhinged rant. He was shocking in his manic disorganization. The Fox and Friends trio attempted to calm and direct him by interrupting to ask questions. He heard them, responded briefly and then took off in a rapid fire bounce from brag to grievance.
There is a term for this. Pressured speech: Click: manic.
The Fox and Friends hosts asked him directly about whether he would leave office gracefully if he lost. It was a softball question, an opportunity for him to say he would win handily, the people loved him, but, of course, he respected the will of the American people, etc. His response was that mailed ballots were a disaster, that they would let dead people and dogs vote, and that an election with mailed in ballots would be completely fraudulent, totally illegitimate, that no one would know who won.
That was the answer to the question.
Trump's stance is clear. The problem is not that ballots won't be returned; it is that they will be returned, the wrong ones, fraudulent ones. If the Post Office cannot do its job, then states can't do widespread mail balloting, which he says will help Democrats. Therefore, hobble the the Post Office to stop mail-in balloting.
There is a term for this. Pressured speech: Click: manic.
The Fox and Friends hosts asked him directly about whether he would leave office gracefully if he lost. It was a softball question, an opportunity for him to say he would win handily, the people loved him, but, of course, he respected the will of the American people, etc. His response was that mailed ballots were a disaster, that they would let dead people and dogs vote, and that an election with mailed in ballots would be completely fraudulent, totally illegitimate, that no one would know who won.
That was the answer to the question.
Trump's stance is clear. The problem is not that ballots won't be returned; it is that they will be returned, the wrong ones, fraudulent ones. If the Post Office cannot do its job, then states can't do widespread mail balloting, which he says will help Democrats. Therefore, hobble the the Post Office to stop mail-in balloting.
That looks petty. It gives Democrats an issue with traction, one that fits the overall description of Trump's as someone who sacrifices the public interest in order to enhance his own political interest. It fits with the Covid virus meme that Trump cared more about looking good than stopping the Covid spread.
The Post Office is enjoying repetitional bull market. They are an essential service and they show up, daily. Good old reliable Post Office. They are the most popular of federal departments, with favorable views held by 91% of respondents, according to Pew Research this spring.
The Postmaster General made an announcement in support of Trump's assertion that the Post Office is an election bottleneck. It is being read as the connivance of a partisan Trump appointee, and not credible. They deliver Christmas mail which they report to be five times the election mail.
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| Portland scene |
In Portland, Oregon collection boxes were being removed and someone snapped this photo. That created a stir. The Post Office said they were just trying to be efficient, what with mail volumes down, but the just announced they would stop removing them--until after the election. This came across as validation of Postal Office collaboration. They were caught with its hand in the election suppression cookie jar, but stopped when it was outed.
There is opportunity for the Postmaster General to backtrack and clean up its record in the upcoming hearings, but Trump is pretty much stuck. He has a position: mass mail-in voting will create a fraudulent election and he wants to stop it any way he can.
Trump doesn't hide that he uses the power of his office to achieve his political ends. He announces it. He is proud of it.
His goof: people like the Post Office.
His goof: people like the Post Office.
6 comments:
Yes Peter the US postal service is pretty American. Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general. Attempting to destroy the postal service feels like an attempt to destroy America.
Election Roulette: How to Rig an Outcome
You know how forgiving banks and landlords for late payments. They'll take any excuse. And won't charge you interest. Uh, maybe not. Medications you get by mail? Some critical? So, you die. So what. Credit card late payments? They'll be happy to lower your credit score and charge interest to boot. No big deal. Ballots being treated as 2nd class mail? Depends on who they voted for. Maybe they'll check first before sending on.
This president is scared, really scared.
I wonder, if he loses, what kind of damage he could do between election day and January 20th. Let all his cronies out of jail? That's a given. Use his executive powers to punish his enemies? Also a given.
I thought 1968 was the craziest political time in my life. That was nothing. This is something the historians will write about for years.
Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. Reagan planted the seed with the "nine words you don't want to hear." Trump has taken "killing the beast" to a whole new level as he blatantly announces that this is exactly what he is doing...right out in the open. He can do this because the public, after Bush/Cheney, has become inured to intentional incompetence in governance. The government is now almost small enough to drown in Grover Norquist's bathtub.
The USPS is the biggest union in the country...Republicans always get a "two-for" with their diabolical plan to privatize everything on God's green earth. They want the "efficiency" all fascists desire...at the cost, of course, of the marginalized, the "expendables;" not exactly their "brothers keepers."
Oh, and there is this: Postmaster General DeJoy and his wife have up to a total $75,815,000 in assets from U.S. Postal Service competitors, according to government records. So..a "three-for" and counting! But we're getting used to this conflict of interest,too, aren't we?
Andy Seles
The U.S. Post Office normally processes more than 2 Billion pieces of first class mail during the week before Christmas, so I think that they are already capable of handling 150 Million Presidential ballots. This noise about more postal service funding is just a false diversion.
You all should be concerned about the number of "dead" people who vote by mail (it happens), or the number of illegal aliens who vote by mail (it happens), or the number of people who vote multiple times by mail (it happens, especially at places like SOU). Voting by mail is very unsecure. It would be more preferable to have the voters go to a polling place and show their IDs before they vote. That would keep fraud to a minimum. Do Democrats need fraud in order to beat Trump??
Curt Ankerberg
Medford, OR
Trump claimed that 3 million people voted illegally during the last election. (thus his 3 million vote deficit.) So, he had a big investigation. The results? They found 1. Oh no!
The good part about paper ballots is that you have a paper trail, in case there's a question. Also, in case of a Russian hack on our computers, you can easily correct the results.
Let's face it, Curt. Trump is scared to death that paper ballots will allow more people to vote. The greater the turnout, the less chance he has. And he knows it. Isn't that what Democracy is about...voting? Choosing your own leaders? That's what seperates us from the Dictatorships around the world. Power flows from the bottom up, not the other way around. Even Trump requested a paper ballot from Florida. In states like Colorado they are almost 100% mail-in and have no problems. Even in Oregon a huge percentage vote by mail. On the other hand, maybe that's why you lost every election you were ever in. So you might have a point.
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