Politics has devastated the Post Office. That hurts us all.

I watched the decline of the United States Postal Service from the inside as an employee and later from the outside as a patron. Three forces are behind the decline of the Post Office: the political forces of Congress and multiple presidents; the internet; and the management of the Post Office itself.

Congress and occasionally the president spent decades of trying to find a way to privatize the Post Office, beginning with President Ronald Reagan. They achieved a great blow against the Post Office with the Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act of 2006, which stripped the Post Office of funds at a time just as the country entered the Great Recession. The Post Office never recovered financially.