THIS IS HOW TRUMP WANTS TO STEAL THE ELECTION

In recent events, President Trump has attacked the United States Postal Service, a federal agency, and threatened to defund it on the grounds that he personally doesn’t want it to be used for mail-in voting this November. That issue, however, is a whole lot bigger than the interests of the federal agency itself and has more to do with the political benefits of his campaign.

That very reason, though, is why millennials, to much surprise, care about the USPS: you can find millennials where things become political and rights are threatened.

Millennials have made convenience one of their top priorities especially since technology makes it even easier. There’s an app for everything: food, delivery, streaming shopping—you name it. So why on earth would young people care about the post office?

We know that the USPS is probably not a millennial’s top choice in delivery services. Amazon Prime’s next-day delivery is hard to beat despite criticisms towards its founder Jeff Bezos. The USPS has something that Amazon doesn’t: historical infrastructure.

The USPS started way back in 1775 when Benjamin Franklin appointed the first postmaster general. In 1792, the Postal Service Act created the official department. By 1970, many workers complained about the poor pay and working conditions, so New York City’s postal workers led a strike that garnered support from other postal workers in the U.S. This led to the Postal Reorganization Act signed by Richard Nixon in 1971 that made the USPS a federal agency.

The U.S. Postal Service has been such a fundamental part of the United States that defunding it isn’t an option despite competition from private companies in delivery services. It has become a part of U.S. culture and taking it away for political gain says more about the president’s intentions than it does about the current popularity or function of the USPS. It is important to understand that not only our voting rights are at stake but also the future of an essential service.