Leadership Quote by Diane Watson

Calling the USPS "the world's most efficient postal system" is less a neutral performance review than a political counterpunch. Diane Watson, a longtime Democratic congresswoman, is defending a public institution that lives in a permanent state of suspicion: admired in practice, disparaged in ideology. The line works because it tries to settle an argument over governance with a seemingly empirical claim. Efficiency becomes a proxy for legitimacy.

The intent is twofold. On the surface, it's praise: the Postal Service reaches every address, six days a week, at standardized prices, under mandates private carriers routinely avoid unless paid extra. Underneath, it rebukes the familiar script that government is inherently bloated while markets are inherently nimble. Watson doesn't argue about civic duty or constitutional roots; she grabs the language of managerial capitalism and turns it back on privatizers. It's a shrewd rhetorical move: if even the business-minded value of "efficiency" is met or exceeded by a public agency, what exactly is the case for dismantling it?

The subtext also signals constituency politics. USPS isn't abstract to communities that rely on it for medication delivery, ballots, checks, and basic connectivity, especially in rural areas and dense urban neighborhoods where "last mile" logistics are either unprofitable or punitive. In the broader context of recurring USPS funding fights, labor battles, and privatization flirtations, the quote is a defensive slogan that aims to make cuts sound not just cruel, but irrational. If something works, why are we trying so hard to break it?