President Trump, possibly assisted by Gov. Mike Braun and Republican members of the state legislature, is attempting to gerrymander the country in such a way that Republicans can remain in power through the 2026 election. They are concerned about losing the House and possibly the Senate in 2026 due to the significant negative impact of the current administration’s policies. They are attempting to “stack the deck” to win in 2026.
Additional gerrymandering will disenfranchise all voters who disagree with Braun and Trump. Indiana is already heavily gerrymandered, making it nearly impossible to unseat some Republican members of the US House. Additional gerrymandering to eliminate one and possibly two Democrats currently in the House means that many more Hoosiers will effectively have no representation in Congress. A healthy Democracy, already in serious question given Trump’s executive actions and the complacency of Congress, requires that there be legitimate alternatives to those in power. Tell your Republican legislators they need to reject this power grab.
Aileen Wehren
North Liberty
Enough already
How and why did the St. Joseph County Area Plan Commission approve the biggest cluster of data centers in the U.S? Amazon has built seven data centers in New Carlisle, each as big as a football field, and plans to add another 30 there in the next few years. The centers will use power equivalent to power 1 million homes, and we have no idea of how much cooling water they’ll need. What guarantees do Amazon or our county make that our electric and water bills will not rise, as they have in other counties with data centers? Where will we go with complaints?
Data centers make loud continuous noise. The town council of Chesterton vetoed a proposal for a center last year because of the potential noise from back-up generators. Apparently, the data center industry has non-disclosure agreements with local governments which prevent dissemination of information to the general public.
It’s too late to veto the Amazon data centers, but can one stop them from building more than the seven buildings already there?
The county must veto further proposals to rezone farmland to build more of these noisy plants that devour our water and power.
Claudia Kselman
Granger
Retaining control
Let me see if I’ve got this straight.
The president of the United States is concerned that his party may not be able to retain its control of both houses of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.
Does he send out mailings to every voter explaining how Congress already has made life so much better than it used to be? Does he put on a media blitz to convince voters that his party is doing a great job? No.
He calls on the leaders of his party in various states to create more districts which are designed to vote for his party.
Yes, that would work. More districts for his party; more members of Congress in his party. More members of Congress in his party; more likelihood of retaining control.
Hmmmm, we used to do this by convincing the voters. Now we do it by convincing the party leadership. And the members of his own party applaud the move.
As a comedian used to say, “Verrrry interesting!”
Robert L. Craft
South Bend
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Speak up on power grab, Hoosier voters | Letters
Reporting by Letters to the Editor / South Bend Tribune
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