NEW YORK, NY – Conspiracy theorists in the right-wing today are starting to suggest New York City Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’ plan to mobile the nation to start buying stamps and writing letters to pen pals is actually just a plan to overburden the U.S. postal system ahead of the 2020 election.
Yes, here’s how it goes.
The postal service is already having a hard time delivering mail. That’s the whole source of contention for both sides of the argument. On the right-wing side, they say, don’t hold a mail-in ballot election because the post office can’t handle it. On the left, they are saying we need to fix the post office problems before the election so the agency can handle the hundreds of millions of mail-in ballots.
Despite AOC’s plan being counterproductive to her Green New Deal, it’s not going to help the post office financially. If each 2,000,000 people in America sign on to this new pen pal program and send 10 letters each between now and November, that will net the post office $11,000,000 with a 55 cent stamp. The post office is $160 billion in debt right now. Those 2,000,000 will generate an additional 20,000,000 pieces of mail for the post office to process and deliver. The net profit here is going to be very low. It could cause backlogs in more important mail and most of all, it will put 20,000,000 unnecessary pieces of mail that can be done with a much smaller carbon footprint with email.
Cutting down trees for 20,000,000 pieces of paper and 20,000,000 envelopes doesn’t sound like it’s in accordance with her Green New Deal either, but it was never about the environment, it’s about politics…and only politics.
If AOC can make President Trump and the U.S. Post Office look bad, it’s a political victory regardless of the ramifications.
Not to mention, the post office already tried this plan. In December 2013, the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants appeared on collection boxes in 13 cities. The boxes were part of a letter-writing campaign geared towards children, in partnership with Nickelodeon. The program was initially intended to last only a month, but was extended until June 2014; some of the boxes remained in place through 2015. It was never done again.
So either AOC is trying to just overburden an already overburdened agency or she’s just dumb. What do you think?
“Every time I think people can’t get any dumber @aoc opens her mouth, wow her way to save the post office is pen pals so the woman who wants to save the planet wants you to write on…paper wow! How many people out there got the wrong drinks,” said Joe Wisniewski.
“When she begins with “I’ve been thinking,” you know you’re in for some high comedy, and this episode does not disappoint,” said Dinesh D’Souza.
“Is she actually trying to convince the Instagram & tik Tok generation to communicate with friends as pen pals via the post office??? I can almost guarantee most teenagers don’t know how to properly address an envelope or which corner to affix the stamp,” Tweeted Tweet Caroline.
This may be her best-hatched plan since stopping cow farts.
In a bid to revitalize the USPS, @aoc proposes a “national progressive penpal program” to boost stamp sales. pic.twitter.com/UzTNdz2Moq
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 17, 2020