ArcaMax

There's one thing Donald Trump can't take away from me.

I'm ready for living in a reality where a knock on the door could take you and your rights away. I'm prepared for violent Jan. 6 offenders in prison to be pardoned on Trump's first day. I'm even braced for freedom of speech -- and the press -- to ebb toward being things of the past.

Vive la resistance, right? Good luck to us.

All that America stands for, as a just and noble light to the world, is on the carving table like red meat. My friends and I fear dark ages descending, with a ruler unrestrained by neither Congress nor the courts.

But there is something sacred that may be tainted by Trump's touch, which would be unbearable.

The once and future president is talking about privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, which is not a business and should never be viewed or judged as one. Not everything is about money. Thousands of faithful mail carriers through rain, sleet and snow should not be fired.

The government-run Postal Service is a central connector and civic service for all who live in these United States. Its purpose is not to make a profit, and any financial losses are the price we pay for a vital constitutional artery, to pump the flow of ideas, letters, commerce and communication.

Yes, the idea of privatizing the Postal Service shows how oblivious Trump is to the Constitution itself. He knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

The founding document has a provision for the United States Post Office, which was established in 1775, even before the nation's birth. To add to its historical luster, Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general. He mapped the best roads and paths between cities for early mail routes.

This public good cannot be measured by a bottom line and handed over to a private company. How wrong that would be. The first to suffer would be residents of distant rural areas, who tend to be Trump voters.

I do love a handwritten note and agree with Jane Fairfax, a character in a Jane Austen novel, who marvels, "The post-office is a wonderful establishment!"

Stamp collectors, unite!

Author Neil Postman argues the post office fostered an educated citizenry. "Aided by Congress' lowering of the postal rates in 1851, the penny newspaper, the periodical, the Sunday school tract, and the cheaply bound book were abundantly available," he wrote.

The Postal Service is part of American democracy, full stop, since before the beginning.

Let Trump flail on other fronts.

His outlandish Cabinet appointments could become the laughingstocks of Washington.

Health and Human Services secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will soon see that few wish to live in a world without vaccines, the greatest advance in medicine, especially when it comes to the contagion of polio.

Tulsi Gabbard as head of national intelligence is a riddle since intelligence is not her strong suit.

Fox host Pete Hegseth will find that running the Pentagon is not about being a blowhard on diversity, women in combat and pardoning war criminals. It requires depth of knowledge, a judicious tone and an understanding of the military's branches -- not to mention global strategy.

These three are not serious people for three serious positions of power. The Washington establishment knows they are Trump's way of insulting the establishment, and many are resigned to it.

For example, Christopher Wray, who quit his post as FBI director (effective January), is the latest casualty of the Trump rampage against insiders with experience and expertise. Ironically, Trump picked him seven years ago but now favors the extreme Kash Patel, who suggested closing the headquarters of the law enforcement bureau.

We have never had an incoming president with so much rage against the government for his own criminal indictments -- convicted of 34 felony counts, with other cases dismissed.

We don't yet know what Trump's reign of "retribution" against his enemies list looks like. Unlike the famous quote from "The Godfather," it's strictly personal, not just business.

All I ask: Don't burn the Postal Service to the ground. That blow would break me.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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