In one of many sweeping changes to the functioning of the federal government, reports suggest that President Trump plans to take control over yet another independent agency, the U.S. Postal Service. Not content to have his handpicked postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a holdover from the first Trump presidency, in place, Trump has signaled a desire to fundamentally alter the agency by bringing the service under direct executive branch control within the Commerce Department.
The purported goal of such a takeover is to make it operate with greater efficiency. But any Trump-controlled version will just bring us closer toward post office privatization, or serve as a means by which the administration could control a critical channel of communication among Americans that has largely protected our privacy for centuries.
The Post Office Act helped spread commerce and civic associations that were the lifeblood of the nation in the early 19th century.
This storied system, warts and all, predates the republic. It needs to remain free and independent, and must continue to serve as a lifeline to communities, not just another means through which the president can exert further control over America’s communications and reward his political supporters.
In the 1770s, prior to the “official” start of the American Revolution, the upstart Continental Congress knew the value of a functioning and free postal system, creating what they called a “constitutional” postal system that would enable them to communicate throughout the colonies without fear that their letters would be opened by loyalist postmasters. The Founders then wrote into Article I of the Constitution: “The Congress shall have Power to establish Post Offices and post Roads.”
In October 1791, President George Washington transmitted his third annual address to Congress. In it, he stressed that a strong and modern postal system would spread “knowledge of the laws and proceedings of the Government,” and protect the people “against the effects of misrepresentation and misconception.”
Congress would then pass the Postal Act of 1792 that didn’t just create the system as authorized by the Constitution, it also baked into the law the privacy of our communications, set mail rates and allowed lower rates for newspapers. Like Washington, James Madison believed a strong and effective postal system would ensure that “all virtuous Citizens” would understand “every salutary public measure” taken by government officials. It would give such citizens “confidence” in their elected representative and ensure the population’s “cooperation with” government actions.
What is more, the Post Office Act encouraged the growth of the postal system and helped spread commerce and civic associations that were the lifeblood of the nation in the early 19th century.
At the end of John Adams’ term as president, the nation had already created over 900 post offices, with over 21,000 miles of post roads. That system would continue to grow, and several decades later, the American postal system was larger than that of England, France and Russia at the time. Given its breadth and reach into virtually every community in the new country, for many Americans the postal system was the federal government, and its workforce rivaled even that of the standing army.
Today, the USPS is the largest civilian employer in the government, with roughly 600,000 workers, many of them holding civil service and union jobs.
The postal system has been a political flashpoint at different moments in our nation’s history. Andrew Jackson threatened to censor abolitionist tracts sent over the mails into slave states, claiming such information would result in a slave revolt. In the 20th century, during World War I and the later McCarthy era, law enforcement engaged in surveillance of those suspected of disloyalty to the nation.
The postal system was also no stranger to corruption, and charges of nepotism and political cronyism led to passage of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 that made the U.S. Post Office an independent agency, to prevent it from being used for nefarious political purposes.
Today, the USPS is the largest civilian employer in the government, with roughly 600,000 workers.
The post office of the 19th century was often found in a dry goods store or other, similar commercial establishment in far-flung rural communities, serving as a hub of information and connecting such communities to the larger nation. Today, the postal system and post offices, in particular, continue to serve for many as their connection to loved ones and the economy. Low-income people without ties to financial institutions use the post office to obtain money orders to pay their rent and utility bills.
Bringing the Post Office under direct control of the executive branch would make crippling it even easier, lead to the destruction of the civil service and union protections of its hundreds of thousands of workers, and open the door for companies, like Amazon — that both deals in e-commerce for itself and other e-commerce companies, and whose CEO has been cozying up to and palling around with the president of late — to have a field day. They could raise rates and fill in the void created by a severely weakened postal system.
Such a system would also serve, like the colonial postal system, as a source of surveillance and monitoring of the president’s critics.
Should the president take such an action, which would defy the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, it will invite lawsuits that are likely to prevail. Like with so much else the administration is doing, however, that specter does not seem likely to prevent such action. But the courts can, and should, protect this critical and independent American institution on which many rely and in which many place their trust.
Although not perfect, it is still better than any alternative the Trump administration might come up with, which is likely to be simple privatization and would leave Americans at the mercy of the private companies that would seek to step into the void. In this instance, like democracy, a free and independent postal system may not be the best possible system, it is just superior to any possible alternative that has been tried.
