When I recently sat down to write very belated Christmas gift thank you notes – my wife is notably better about this – I went through the following sequence of thoughts:
- I’m writing these notes on behalf of my two-year old daughter and I wonder if she will ever handwrite thank you notes in the future, or will she only send them via email, Facebook or whatever replaces Facebook in five years.
- Now that I think about it, will my daughter ever learn to write cursive, other than for her signature? (Of course, I’m assuming signatures will eventually be replaced by retinal scans or some sort of DNA signature.) Why would she ever really need to learn how?
- I’m going to stick these envelopes in the mail and within a couple of days they will arrive at the homes of friends and family all over the country. And I 100% expect them to be delivered in a timely manner.
- For all of the people’s complaints about the U.S Postal Service, it is a pretty amazing government enterprise, one that benefits everyone – including (especially?) Republicans.
First of all, it is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the U.S. Constitution.1 How can a Republican not love a government agency created by this holy document?
Next, Republicans love the military and hold veterans – at least symbolically – in high regard. In exchange for their service, military veterans are given hiring preference for many federal jobs, including the Postal Service. As it turns out many veterans take advantage of this preference and in fact more than one in five Postal Service employees is a veteran, and one-third of them are disabled veterans. Since the only part of President Obama’s 2011 jobs bills Republicans supported – and ultimately became law – was the “Returning Heroes Tax Credit” creating incentives for employers to hire veterans, they must love the Postal Service. They hire a ton of veterans!
Of course, geography is important, too. For many rural communities, their local post office is their only government building. Furthermore, the Postal Service is legally obligated to serve all Americans at a uniform price. So sending a letter to a remote county costs the same as sending a letter down the street in your own neighborhood.
And guess who lives in these rural communities? Republicans! For example, let’s look at Wyoming. In the 2008 Presidential Election, Wyoming gave John McCain his widest margin of victory over Obama of any state — 65% to 33%. This is a pretty solid red state. Its biggest county, Laramie, has 9 post offices for ~92,127 residents – a ratio of one post office for every 10,236 people. (That’s about on par with the national ratio of one post office for every 9,633 Americans.) Now what about Wyoming’s smallest county, Niobrara? It has a population of ~2,482 and 4 post offices. That’s a ratio of one post office for every 620 residents. Those Niobrara residents are certainly getting their money’s worth and 79% of them voted for McCain.
Now this fact – that post offices provide important services for rural, and often Republican, Americans – is not lost on Congressional Republicans. Last summer when the Postal Service announced plans to close over 3,700 post offices to address its ongoing budget deficits, several U.S. Senators – including Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) – introduced the “Protecting Rural Post Offices Act.” This bill would create, well, let’s just say it, a new government regulation prohibiting the closure of any post office which results in more than 10 miles distance between any 2 post offices. Know thy constituents and use government to protect them…
Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent (or in Mitt Romney’s case, all three), there are dozens of things you like receiving in the mail, including wedding invitations, holiday cards, birth announcements, tax refunds, magazines like US Weekly2 Scientific American, and, of course, handwritten thank you notes. Granted there are many things we’d rather not receive that come in the mail, too – such as utility bills, tax bills, credit card bills, unsolicited credit card offers, and unsolicited offers to buy rare gold coins of buffaloes or Elvis. And, even though we all have a horror story of an important letter being lost or a waiting in line at a post office, it is really an incredible operation, processing over 170 billion pieces a mail each year. (That’s ~6,500 per second.)
While my daughter will likely need a Rosetta Stone to read and write in cursive, I’m going to make sure she still handwrites – or at least prints out – thank you notes to send to relatives. I know my Republican family members in Oklahoma (McCain 66%; Obama 34%) will appreciate it.
Nice work. I knew that there was something up by the mere name of your site. I wonder if someone were to take the exact opposite tack, and say that democrats hate government, by documenting that there are X number of PO's in Manhattan, to serve X number of residents? Manhattan I am sure voted for BHO.
There is one person for every square mile in Niobrara County. One third of the county is Federal Grasslands.
13% of the people live below the poverty line (Do democrats hate the poor?)
per capita income is $15.7K. How about doing some research with a densely populated area and see if the democrats hate government. I am sure that most of the densely populated areas supported BHO for the POTUS.
Most of the titles are purely misleading. They produce the opposite of what the title is.
"Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act", or "Obamacare". The name is an oxymoron of what the bill will actually do. Republicans love everyone, even those in rural areas. They too are Americans. They do know that there is a need for government. I would not say that the GOP is in love with "the" government in it's current form. I would love to ask Jefferson that question. But thank you for the article, the title is what brought me to your page from the pen page. (postalemployeenetwork.com) I would hope that this would make it in the comment section, unedited. That is another thing that the left does." Free speech", for those who speak as I do. All other must be silenced. OWS has proven that.
I've thought about that a couple of times — creating a parallel blog chronicling the ways Democrats actually hate government. I don't have the bandwidth to do that, so be my guest!
Republicons only love money, war and evading taxes. Tea baggers have dollar signs in their eyes when they can buy politicians and privatize government agenesis to continue to rape lady liberty without oversight or regulation. 2012 will see less of your greedy party.
any comments on the article, or just your opinion?
Republicans hate government but love the services it provides. The only difference among those Republicans that can't get along without those services, the majority btw, is that they don't know that their leaders are using them for the benefit of those ultra rich Republicans (minority). They also don't know the difference between a USPS that doesn't rely on tax dollars and one that does.
The Postal Service has lied, cheated, falcified documents, and has made a complete ruse of these town meetings for these closings. Thousands of career employees will lose their livlihoods when the PO hires all temps. Then watch how your service will change. Congress loves the Post Office because of the money they have and will spend from pre-funding. The top execs enjoy huge salary and benefit packages including 100% health care. They have turned a simple service into a cash cow for their own good. Maybe instead of teaching your daughter cursive writing, you should teach her to stand up for what is right, to be unselfish and compassionate. http://www.Savethepostoffice.com by Steve Hutkins will enlighten you.
I agree. Nice post.