Politics

Why People Are Sending Donald Trump a 'Postcard Avalanche'

November 28th 2016

Donald Trump can expect more mail than usual this week.

donald-trump-iraq-war-2002AP Photo/Matt Rourke - apimages.com

The influx comes thanks an online effort encouraging people to send the president-elect postcards denouncing Steve Bannon's appointment as chief strategist and senior counselor for the incoming administration.

steve-bannonAP/Danny Moloshok - apimages.com

With more than 40,000 people marked as attending the Facebook event, "Postcard Avalanche to Denounce Bannon" gave detailed instructions to people who wish to participate in the "postcard avalanche" from November 26 to 28.

1. Get a postcard from your state - any picture that represents your state.
2. In the message section, write this simple message: NOT BANNON!
3. Sign your name if you wish
4. Address it as follows:
Donald Trump
c/o The Trump Organization
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022
5. Affix a stamp - you can use a 34 cent postcard stamp, or a normal letter stamp.
6. Take a picture of your postcard that you can share on social media on Nov. 26-28th
7. Drop it in the mail between Saturday, Nov 26th and Monday, Nov. 28th to create a concentrated avalanche of postcards.
8. On Nov. 26-28th, Tweet and share the heck out of your photo using the hashtags #postcardavalanche #stopbannon

On Twitter, several users shared pictures of their postcards with their singular message written out.

While the Facebook group did not provide a specific reason for why they are decrying Steve Bannon's appointment, it included a link to an op-ed by writer Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post. In the piece, Parker poses an essential question about Bannon, formerly executive chairman at media outlet Breitbart News, which is mouthpiece of the "alt-right," white nationalist movement:

Is it possible to allow white supremacists and woman-haters to traffic on your website and still be considered something less awful?

...Bannon may or may not be like “Breitbart people,” but he has been willing to strategically encourage people’s hate as a way of inciting them to action. How these methods will manifest themselves in the White House remains to be seen. But we can uncomfortably imagine that Trump under Bannon’s direction will do whatever it takes to get what he wants.

On Monday, the New York Times reported a disturbing suggestion Bannon made to a colleague — that only property owners should have the right to vote. The Times spoke to that former colleague, Julia Jones, and her comments paint a disturbing picture of the President-elect’s advisor.

Ms. Jones, the film colleague, said that in their years working together, Mr. Bannon occasionally talked about the genetic superiority of some people and once mused about the desirability of limiting the vote to property owners.

“I said, ‘That would exclude a lot of African-Americans,’ ” Ms. Jones recalled. “He said, ‘Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.’ I said, ‘But what about Wendy?’” referring to Mr. Bannon’s executive assistant. “He said, ‘She’s different. She’s family.’ ”

As ATTN: has previously reported, “Headlines published in Breitbart under Bannon's leadership include anti-Semitic references to a 'Renegade Jew' and to 'Gay Hitler.' Breitbart has also published racist headlines and stories that slur trans people and compare Planned Parenthood to the Holocaust.”

Earlier this month, more than 150 Congressional Democrats signed on to a letter requesting that Trump rescind his appointment of Bannon. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), whose Jewish father escaped the Holocaust, said Bannon's appointment flew directly in the face of Trump's professed goal of uniting the country.

“How can Trump say he’s healing wounds when he appoints someone who has created and exacerbated divisions based on race, sex, and religion in a very vitriolic way?" Blumenthal wrote.

Update: Elona Sherwood, one of the organizers of the event, told ATTN: via email that in addition to the public Facebook event, there were two private Facebook events with 90,000 people marked as “attending,” making a combined total of all events roughly 130,000 people. This figure does not include people who shared the event with friends by word of mouth. 

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