I grew up in a small town of about 3,000 people. I don't want to live there anymore, but I also don't want to see it disappear. I suspect a lot of Americans are like me.
So it alarms me that President Trump seems hellbent on destroying the effectiveness of the Post Office. (In this, he has been aided by years of work from Congressional Republicans.) That will hurt the small, rural towns that provide so much of the president's support. Vox reported on this in April:
The USPS is legally required to deliver all mail, to all postal addresses in all regions, at a flat rate, no matter how far it may have to travel. The service’s accessibility and affordability are especially important to rural communities that live in poverty and to people with disabilities, who can’t afford the cost of a private business to deliver their daily necessities. (In 2017, the rural poverty rate was 16.4 percent, compared with 12.9 percent for urban areas.)
And while some may argue that the USPS is becoming more obsolete as an increasing number of services are becoming digitalized, there’s still a large chunk of people who rely on mail because they have poor (or no) internet service. (The Federal Communications Commission estimates that 14.5 million people in rural areas lack access to broadband.) In fact, 18 percent of Americans still pay their bills by mail, according to an ACI Worldwide report; meanwhile, 20 percent of adults over 40 who take medication for a chronic condition get those pills by mail order, according to a survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association.
Neither Democrats or Republicans are actually all that good at serving rural interests, even though rural red states have disproportionate power. That usually translates into generous farm bills, and occasionally preserving railroad service to small towns. But letting the Post Office go to hell will hurt small towns. If only for their political survival, I don't know why Republicans would let this happen.
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