Democrats are focused on "saving" the United States Postal Service because Republicans – including President Donald Trump – have repeatedly talked about the agency's inefficiencies. There have been concerns over whether or not the USPS has the capacity and capability to handle mail-in voting for the November election despite being overwhelmed as it is. In fact, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday said she would be calling back the House from recess for an emergency session to discuss the situation.
For whatever reason, progressive darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) seems to think if she puts together a "progressive pen pal program" that the USPS' issues would suddenly be solved. Her logic: people would be buying stamps.
"I have been thinking about ways to help you help the post office and I think I got an idea and I'm interested in hearing your thoughts," she said. "So, one of the best ways to support the post office is to buy stamps."
"What do you all think of – would you guys be down and excited if I set up a national progressive pen pal program?" the freshman congresswoman asked. "I would do all the work of connecting you to somebody else. We would offer maybe some conversation prompts or postcard prompts and even a printable post card format. You just send it out."
"Would you guys be down?" she asked with a smile. "Do you like that idea?"
Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted the fact that she would be headed back to Washington, D.C. to take part in an "emergency hearing" that the House Oversight Committee would be doing with United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
"I serve on this committee and am also the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Civil Liberties, and will head back to Washington to question the Postmaster myself, in person," AOC wrote in an Instagram story.
It's really interesting that the congresswoman proposed this idea. Back in 2018, a focus group revealed that college students don't return their ballots because they don't know where to buy stamps at or it's too much of a hassle to track one down.
It's kind of hard to encourage this "penpal program" when the demographic she's targeting knows all about climate change but not where to buy a stamp (like at a post office or grocery store).
Even if these Millennials and Gen Zers knew where to buy stamps, what makes her think this will be enough to suddenly save the post office? This doesn't address any of the agency's issues, like how Amazon packages are dumped at local post offices to be delivered to residents. Then again Democrats fail to acknowledge that collection boxes have been removed for years, including under the Obama administration. This is their way of saying Republicans are trying to suppress voters.
In a bid to revitalize the USPS, @aoc proposes a “national progressive penpal program” to boost stamp sales. pic.twitter.com/UzTNdz2Moq
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 17, 2020