Millions of Americans have been trying for years to save the U.S. Postal Service from the depredations of those who would privatize the whole thing, but now there are 20 state attorneys general who have petitioned to stop changes that are meant to further cripple postal services.

It was clear that the previous president’s appointment of Louis DeJoy as postmaster general was designed specifically to hamper USPS operations to the point of collapse if that were possible. In his testimony before Congress before he took over the service, he did not even know the price of a first-class stamp, let alone any of the other aspects of running such a complex and efficient operation.

Things went downhill from there. One of DeJoy’s early moves was to take out sorting machines from various centers. That slowed down the mail, but to make sure that they could not be brought back on line, he had the machines broken down and hauled away. Things were moving as planned by Trump and his postmaster: Slow things down so that the people who depend on the daily mail become infuriated and maybe will accept their coming proposal to privatize it.

It is not working exactly as planned, because the people seem to like the USPS more than any other service of the government. The polls show it, and they want their Postal Service back even better than it was. The people wait for their Social Security checks that arrive in the mail. They depend on it for their vital medications. They pay their bills by mail. Small businesses, especially in the rural areas, depend on the mail for prompt and reliable delivery of goods and orders. And, even in this age of instant, online communication, the U.S. mail is a vital communication service, just as the founders believed it would be more than two centuries ago.

One thing that is usually lost in describing the USPS is that it, along with a few other agencies of government, it provided jobs for minorities and other marginalized groups, when private companies could discriminate almost at will in hiring and promotion of black workers and other people of color. That alone resulted in large numbers of such workers rising even into the middle class and beginning to buy homes in safer neighborhoods. And sending their children to college. This alone should be enough for every American to come to the defense of the Postal Service and to fight all attempts to downgrade it to the point that it is just a candidate for a garage sale item.

Numerous calls for the firing of DeJoy have been coming from across the country because he is there just to see Trump’s dream of privatization come true. There is money in the operation and private hands want to grasp some of it, maybe most of it. No private company wants to be required to deliver mail to every address in the sprawling United States every day. For 55 cents. Not enough money in it. They’d rather take the cream of deliveries and leave the grunt work to the USPS.

New York Attorney Letitia James, one of the attorneys general suing to stop DeJoy’s mission, said last summer: “For nearly a year now, we have had to fight the United States Postal Service tooth and nail to fulfill its mission and provide timely delivery of mail, medications, paychecks, ballots, and other essentials to Americans across the nation... Now, instead of fixing the problems that remain delinquent a year later, Postmaster General DeJoy wants to lead the USPS in making further service cuts that would only result in more delays. The Postal Regulatory Commission should reject these changes and direct the USPS to take action to resume USPS service to what it once was. If they don’t, we will not hesitate to use every tool at our disposal to hold the USPS accountable.”

Generally speaking, the USPS under DeJoy has ignored pleas and orders to stop delaying delivery of the mail and cutting important parts of the service to “save money.” The postmaster general has demonstrated his arrogance and ignorance of postal operations, yet it is difficult to remove him. He told Congress at an open hearing: “(I’m going to be here for a long time). Get used to me.” Technically, he serves at the pleasure of the Postal Board of Governors. President Biden is under pressure to fire him or, at least, appoint a majority of governors who would fire DeJoy, who has demonstrated no understanding of the importance of the Postal Service as part of a democracy. And surely, he has demonstrated no competence in leading such a vital agency.

DeJoy has been described by congressional critics as “a walking conflict of interest” and, on Sept. 14, 2020, Forbes magazine reported on: “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s financial holdings in former employer XPO Logistics and other private sector firms are an ‘enormous’ financial conflict of interest that should result in his resignation or firing, experts testified to a House Oversight subcommittee Monday, as scrutiny has intensified into possible campaign finance violations before DeJoy arrived at the U.S. Postal Service and how his ties to the private sector and GOP might affect his work as postmaster general.”

He should have been gone long ago, but a lack of will has left him in charge. What is seldom mentioned of late is that the USPS was burdened with a weight that no government agency or private corporation could sustain: In 2006, a Republican-led Congress passed a law that forces the Postal Service to prepay its pensions for 75 years, to fund future workers who may not yet be born. There is likely only one reason for that action and that is to weaken the USPS so that Americans would be more accepting of the idea of privatization.

One of the ways that the USPS could begin to turn a profit, despite the obstacles thrown in its way is in banking services, which the service once had. It could provide savings and checking accounts, provide check-cashing, bill paying, ATM access, expanded wire transfer and improved money orders, services that are especially needed in poorer neighborhoods, where access to traditional banking is not available. There are post offices in virtually every neighborhood in the U.S. and in every little small town in rural areas.

They are vital and available and the banking services alone would save working-class Americans and those who are too poor to qualify for most banks’ services money that each year could amount to hundreds of dollars (think of the predatory check-cashing services and payday lenders). The powerful corporations that provide these “services” are not mom-and-pop operations. They are big business and they don’t want any competition. To continue to fleece the working class and the poor, they need to stay in business.

Opponents of improvements in the USPS will fight tooth and nail to keep things going in the direction that DeJoy has taken it. There are hundreds of millions to be made by privatizing Postal Service functions. Everyone who depends on the mail, or knows someone who does, for paychecks, Social Security checks, medications, and ballots for participating in elections needs to be fighting for the survival and improvement of the USPS. And, demanding of their elected representatives that they join in the effort to rid the Post Office of Louis DeJoy.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a former newspaper reporter and labor organizer, who lives in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Contact Mr. Funiciello and BC.