Trump Going Postal: How the USPS turned into an unlikely final straw of tyranny.
Trump Going Postal: How the USPS turned into an unlikely final straw of tyranny.
By: Baylynne Brunetti / Assistant Opinion Editor
Election collusion and meddling has been an issue that has run rampant within the Trump administration since the beginning of its sojourn at the White House. With the many indictments circling Trump advisors, this administration has fallen anywhere but short of corrupt. At this point, it feels like every day is just another day of hyper-partisanship, which unfortunately has become the status quo. This was amplified on Aug.13, 2020, when Trump, in his usual blazing fashion, took to Fox News to dismantle an unlikely branch: the United States Postal Service.
President Trump did not shy away from taking the opportunity to address why he did not want to approve more funding for the USPS, with his biggest qualm being his falsified claim that mail-in voting leads to higher levels of election fraud. It is important to note that there is no study in which mail-in voting leads to voter fraud, or that voter fraud is even an issue in our democracy. What is a problem in our democracy however, is a President threatening one of the most sacred rights we have: voting. President Trump attempting to use his power to block funding to the USPS is election meddling by definition, and both parties should be gravely concerned by his blatant authoritarianism.
On Aug. 17, the first night of the Democratic National Convention, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said that, “voting should be patriotic, not partisan.” This could not be more true as we try to establish that Trump blocking funding to the USPS is not a partisan issue, but rather a bipartisan issue. Both sides of the aisle should be condemning a very blatant attempt at election meddling. As college students, absentee ballots are our life-line to democracy and that life-line gets cut off without the postal service. Especially during a time when a pandemic condemns us to our homes.
Just when the American people thought it could not be anymore obvious that this attempt at blocking funding was election fraud, the postmaster general under the Trump administration, Louis Dejoy, announced a proposal to increase the price of postage for mail-in ballots from 20 cents to 55 cents. This is a violation of the Twenty-fourth Amendment. The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified in 1964; it prohibits conditioning the right to vote in a federal election on payment of a poll tax or other types of taxes. Election procedures are a states rights issue, that meaning, each individual state handles their own election protocol. Many states require the voter to pay for their own postage on their ballot.
In a normal time, it would be harder to argue that the postal fee to send back your ballot constitutes a poll tax. But, in a time when mail-in voting can be a life or death situation for some people; it definitely can be debated that raising stamp prices constitutes a poll tax. Especially before an election when many Americans are struggling financially, the raising of stamps at this time is a violation of the Twenty-fourth Amendment.
In the time of a global pandemic, with an imminent election at stake, it is imperative that the USPS receives the funding it needs to be the catalyst for democracy. With states implementing mail-in voting to protect their residents, the USPS will be a pivotal factor in ensuring our democracy stays a democracy. As for the citizens of the United States, we should be taking a hard look at how our government officials respond to Trump’s executive overreach that extends its arm into authoritarianism. Voting is one of the most sacred rights we have in this country. It has been fought hard for and we should never give up the fight.
“The views expressed in the editorial and op-ed sections are not necessarily those of The USD Vista staff, the University of San Diego, or its student body.”