Mark Sumner writes:

Once upon a time, most Americans would have been hard-pressed to name the postmaster general. That fabled time was any time before May of this year, when Donald Trump replaced Postmaster General Megan Brennan with Louis DeJoy. And yes, I had to look up Megan Brennan.

What position of power did Brennan occupy before taking over the Postal Service under Barack Obama? None. Brennan started as a mail carrier at the Postal Service in 1986, delivering letters to neighborhoods in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She worked her way through the ranks at the USPS. For more than a decade, she headed up distribution and transportation in the Northeast before taking over as postmaster in her 27th year with the Postal Service.

Compare that Louis DeJoy. His postal-related career was almost as long as Brennan’s. It’s just that DeJoy spent that career practicing what he’s doing now: Tearing the post office down. And DeJoy doesn’t just owe his new role to Donald Trump—he’s hugely in debt to Mitch McConnell.

Before stepping into the top job in May, DeJoy had a total of zero time with the actual USPS. However, he did have two decades of experience as CEO of a freight company that competed against the Postal Service—making it no surprise that his stock portfolio is full of reasons to destroy the institution where he works. Much more importantly in terms of landing his current position, DeJoy has long been a big fundraiser for the Republican Party in general and for Donald Trump in particular. In fact, DeJoy was named one of four finance chairs for the Republican Party, along with such luminaries as Steve Wynn and Michael Cohen. And DeJoy’s contact with Republican leadership didn’t end with cutting checks for their campaigns. [Continue reading…]