This OTYCD post originally appeared in April 2020. We’ll keep rerunning it periodically until the post office is out of danger.

Please do your bit to #SaveTheUSPS by buying stamps and asking your Congressional reps to demand a fix to the nonsensical position years of Republican animus has put the vital government service in.

Sarah Jane here. I can’t believe I have to write this blog post, but here we are.

A contingent among the Republicans have been trying to kill the United States Postal Service (USPS) for decades.

They have many motivations:

They want to privatize it.

They want to bust its union.

Republicans are mortally offended by the existence of any government service that successfully serves every American, no matter where they live or how expensive it is to reach them.

So, naturally, they want the USPS dead, or at least broken beyond repair.

Republicans want this despite the fact that it will screw over rural voters, many of whom would instantly lose delivery service because no company could turn a profit on meeting their needs.

Republicans want this despite the fact that people on active military duty cannot receive packages from FedEx or UPS at their post office boxes.

One of the ways the Republicans tried to set the USPS on a course for death was through a 2006 law, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), that required it to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pension obligations for every new hire. No business or other government employer is required to meet that standard.

The USPS has been laboring under that burden for more than a decade.

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic upending everything, the USPS has taken another hit. Its leaders have asked the government for aid. (Calling any such aid a “bailout” is misleading and incorrect; the USPS is vital government infrastructure, and the USPS would be in the black in the absence of the 2006 law.)

Trump has flatly refused to provide it, going so far as to say he wouldn’t sign a COVID-19-related stimulus bill that included relief for the service.

So, we have to raise hell over this. We have to do it now. And we can’t stop until the Trump administration gives in.

If you have money to spare, please go to USPS.com and buy stamps. If you haven’t yet joined the army of #PostcardsToVoters writers, now is a great time to sign on. You’ll need to supply your own 35-cent postcard stamps to participate.

Also call your members of Congress–your House rep and your two Senators–and tell then you want Trump to quit the shenanigans and give the USPS what it needs to keep operating.

Before you call, check the social media feeds of all three to see if they’re already on the case. For example, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has been vocal about the need to help the USPS. Maybe some or all of your MoCs have been, too.

The ever-excellent Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_Pewter) has a script at the ready, and includes this timely caveat, which applies to Sunday, April 12, 2020, and also to COVID-19-related time lags:

“Remember, your members are in their home districts at the moment, so call/email/fax district offices (DOs). Also important to know: staff are working from home, so factor in some potential time delays.”