They Were Just 7 Years Off

     The United States laid waste by an apocalypse, followed by racist, nativist violence carried out by anti-government militias. The destruction of the US Postal Service. Sound like latter-day America? Well, it's the 2013 of David Brin's The Postman, turned into a film in 1997.
     Kevin Costner played the titular role, a drifter and erstwhile Shakespearean actor who delivered monologues by the Bard in exchange for food. He was essentially rechristened a lowkey, less harmful Elmer Gantry when he found the skeleton of a postal worker who'd died while making his rounds. Our otherwise nameless hero takes the postman's jacket, hat and his undelivered bag of mail which he then delivers to the next settlement. He announces that he represents a newly reconstituted United States government that doesn't exist. As the community's leader told him, "You're just a drifter who found an old hat and a bag of mail." Which is true.
     In the backdrop of all this is General Bethlehem (played by Will Patton), who's busy turning the wasteland that was the United States into a totalitarian nightmare and he sees the Postman as a threat to his way of life. What started out as another con turned into a real-life movement and within time, the US Postal Service was resurrected by an army of young volunteers.
     Watching it again these days is a disturbing peek into a United States that's rapidly turning into the dystopian world produced in this movie taking place in 2013. We're right in the middle of a pandemic that's already killed 171,000 Americans and, until they decided to halt their changes until "after the election", what risibly passes for postal service leadership has been very busy this week removing postal collection boxes, destroying and throwing in dumpsters mail sorters and bar code scanning machines that cost millions each and otherwise doing everything in their power to not only slow down the postal service less than 80 days before the election but to lay the foundation for its destruction.
     However, this should not be construed as capitulation by DeJoy, who was recently threatened by House Democrats with arrest if he didn't show up to testify to Congress. Nearly 700 sorting machines have been removed, all in swing states, destroyed or thrown in dumpsters. Hundreds of collection boxes removed & still sitting in warehouses. And states are that much closer to the ballot deadlines that won't be extended. DeJoy's work is done here.
     In the world of David Brin's "The Postman", General Bethlehem cannot stand the idea of a postal service or a United States rising up to defend its hoary, high-minded ideals. Because the US Postal Service, older than the Constitution, linked more than just individuals- It linked a nation, first by horseback then more mechanized means. And now, in partnership with the postal services of other nations, it helps to link the people of this planet.
     People like Bethlehem and Trump don't want that. Trump, a hypocrite who's made heavy use of ballots for many years, is now telling us mail in ballots are rife with virtually nonexistent fraud, with certain exceptions like Florida, for instance.  In this respect, Trump is a typical Republican- someone who loathes the very idea of a government-run program or organization that actually works for the people and not against it. More than once, he's floated the idea that the postal service should have a profit motive as if it was UPS, Fedex or DHL.
     It's inconceivable to Trump that this most democratic of institutions, the United States Postal Service, would not have a profit motive. And, knowing that he's headed for sure defeat this November, he's just barely self-aware enough in his reptilian brain to know that he cannot stop tens of millions of Americans from using their mail-in ballots.
     Unless he stops them from getting them or getting them delivered so late that they can't make their states' deadlines. And Trump brazenly admitted on Fox, “They need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. They don’t have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So therefore, they can’t do it, I guess.”
     In other words,  "I am stealing your ballots so you can't vote for Biden."
     So this unfairly and cruelly forces voters of all political stripes into a quandary- Either almost surely lose their votes due to slowed-down mail delivery or risk their lives by waiting on line potentially for hours to give their votes a better chance of being counted.
     No one, regardless of their political affiliation, should have to make a life or death choice just to exercise their Constitutionally mandated right to vote.