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Politicizing USPS is another Andrew Jackson move from Trump
Jackson also politicized the postal service — to help his chosen successor and to protect slave owners.
Any sitting president who feels he must resort to such underhanded chicanery to win reelection belongs nowhere near the White House.
If you plan to vote by mail, do so as early as possible in your state.
Jackson also politicized the postal service — to help his chosen successor and to protect slave owners.
8/16/20
President Trump seems intent on embracing the worst characteristics of the president he has claimed as his own: Andrew Jackson. Nowhere was this clearer than Trump’s admission on Thursday that he opposed aid to states and an emergency bailout for the U.S. Postal Service because he wants to limit the number of Americans who can vote by mail. During the 19th century, Jackson also politicized the Postal Service, in the hopes of advancing the campaign of his chosen successor, Martin Van Buren, and protecting his interests and those of his fellow enslavers. While his cause was different from Trump’s, he too hoped to suppress the will of a segment of the American population for political gain. During Jackson’s second presidential term (1833-37), abolitionists undertook a coordinated mailing campaign to flood Southern states with items denouncing slavery. The campaign prompted widespread public protest and attention throughout the South. Postmaster General Amos Kendall, an enslaver himself, sent Southern postmasters vague instructions that they were to withhold the abolitionist material unless subscribers requested its delivery. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the president — who continued to buy and sell enslaved African Americans to work his Nashville plantation, the Hermitage — assured Kendall that he had made the right choice.
The president concluded by asking Congress to strengthen executive authority by passing a law making it illegal to distribute abolitionist material via the Post Office. After extensive debate, Congress refused, citing in part the stifling of free speech and the expansion of executive authority that would result.Jackson’s willingness to use his power as president to dictate what could go through the mail, in the hopes of advancing his political agenda, grossly distorted the purpose of the U.S. Postal Service. The Founders saw it as a pillar for ensuring free political speech for those in power and their opponents, and as a means of binding the nation together. Congress recognized this tie between free political speech and the Postal Service in rejecting Jackson’s proposal to ban abolitionist mailings. Today, Trump is trying to do something similar. He perceives mail voting as advantageous to his opponents and open to fraud, despite a lack of evidence to support this claim. As such, he’s willing to risk delays in Americans receiving everything from medications to critical payments to advance his political goals. Like Jackson, he’s willing to sacrifice the common good for his personal well-being. Jackson’s strategy worked. Whether Trump will succeed is up to us.
Any sitting president who feels he must resort to such underhanded chicanery to win reelection belongs nowhere near the White House.
If you plan to vote by mail, do so as early as possible in your state.