‘Postcard Avalanche’ to stop Bannon rips through social media
Thousands of postcards have been sent to president-elect, Donald Trump, in attempt to show their obvious distaste for Steve Bannon’s appointment
Donald Trump’s recent announcement to appoint Steve Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor for his administration has left many Americans fuming. Those upset would describe Bannon using words such as “alt-right”, misogynist, nationalist, racist, and anti-Semitic.
People have decided to flood Donald Trump with postcards to show their distaste for this appointment. The ‘postcard avalanche’ as it has been dubbed, took place November 26th through November 28th. Facebook groups have popped up urging people to send as many postcards as possible to 5th Ave. The cards contain pictures of the sender’s state, funny memes, and even personalized drawings. The motivation behind sending postcards is unique to each household and person, but most contain the words “Not Bannon!”
A handmade postcard courtesy of Stan and Georgia Kline-Moen from Colorado
Elona Sherwood created a private Facebook event entitled “Postcard Avalanche to Denounce Bannon – GO!” that has racked up nearly 750,000 invitees. “The main purpose of the protest was to make a strong statement to Trump himself that demonstrated how everyday Americans feel about Bannon’s position in the White House. It is our position that any person who set himself up to be perceived as racist, bigoted, or otherwise associated with ‘dark powers’ cannot be tolerated in the White House,” Sherwood told The Tab Wisconsin.
Courtesy of Pamela Lewis Wollatson
“My father and millions of Americans fought and died in WWII to keep a white supremacist and anti-Semite out of the [white house]. Our [president-elect] has disrespected them in one fell swoop by appointing Bannon, a white supremacist and anti-Semite to be his personal adviser,” said event member, Dianne McLain. McLain also sent ten postcards from Las Vegas.
Courtesy of Dianne McLain
Blithe Spirit and her daughter, other event members, sent two colorful postcards from their home. “Our family (barely) escaped the original holocaust and a number of them were killed there. I remember numbers on my great uncle’s arm. Nothing about any of this should ever, ever, ever be normalized or underestimated,” Spirit said about the situation.
Postcard courtesy of Blithe Spirit
People were also encouraged to post their pictures on Twitter. Tweets containing the hashtags #StopBannon and #PostcardAvalanche have been extremely popular throughout the forum since the creation of the movement. Thousands of tweets have flooded in from all around the U.S. including states that were red in the election. Some tweets include hashtags with obvious continued support for Hillary Clinton as well.
At this point, there has been no response from the president-elect regarding the postcards. People from the movement are still attempting to spread the message of their cause to those who haven’t been reached. Moving forward, the events and groups who banned together to send postcards will wait for any indication that Donald Trump’s team had received the letters. “There were some instances of post offices running out of post card stamps. However, due to privacy restrictions, the post office cannot divulge the actual number delivered to Trump Tower this week,” Elona Sherwood said of the sheer number of postcards.
Though some people thought sending the cards might be a lost cause, they felt a sense of unity when theirs entered the mail. Some, however, felt that the pure volume of postcards will be impossible to ignore. Even though the event is technically over, nearly 25,000 people are still currently talking across Facebook. Time will tell if the goals of the movement will be reached.