Trump/Musk is coming for your mail service

The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) -- that's the postal workers union -- held rallies all over the country today against the Trump/Musk threat to privatize the post office. They were out in force on San Francisco's Embarcadero today.

Trump and Musk probably don't know this, but the US Constitution explicitly empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads." The USPS is one of the original functions of the federal government, right in there alongside raising an army for defense.

NALC sure doesn't trust Trump's Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and DOGE to identify inefficiencies in the complex nationwide mail system.

The union issued a letter:

As DOGE attempts to tackle [financial and pension issues] at the Postal Service, it is important that they know what our members do and who they are. Letter carriers are lifelines to American communities who uphold our Constitutionally mandated service obligation by delivering to 169 million delivery points, including 51.5 million rural households and businesses, six and sometimes seven days a week.

Five years ago, during a global pandemic when most businesses shut down, letter carriers did not take one day off. We did not work from home. Instead, we delivered every single day, just as we have for 250 years.

... Common sense solutions are what the Postal Service needs, not privatization efforts that will threaten 640,000 postal employees’ jobs, 7.9 million jobs tied to our work, and the universal service every American relies on daily.

As is true in so many arenas, the people most likely to be hurt by diminished postal service are poor and rural folks -- so many of whom were Trump voters. Let's all of us stand up for a strong national postal service. It's part of what brings us together as one country.