Heritage Foundation proves it’s conservatives who want to pack US courts
Make the vote reflect the voters
It’s time to abolish the Electoral College. It creates uncertainty and gives one party leverage. That does not reflect democracy. We elect our senators and representatives by popular vote; why not the president?
It’s time to update an outdated process, giving the outcome of an election more certainty and less controversy.
- Don Hughes, Cedar Hill
Who would have thought it?
What a crazy election. Just imagine: This time the candidate who won more votes is actually going to be president.
- Mark Bauer, Haslet
Right is packing the courts
The Nov. 4 column by Amy Swearer of the Heritage Foundation is proof positive of the blatant court-packing supported by conservatives. (15A, “Finally a justice of our own”) It is not the job of the Supreme Court to represent the country’s diversity.
The Star-Telegram should be ashamed for publishing such a politically driven column.
- Bob Scott, Colleyville
Wrong outlook on voting trends
Once again, Cynthia M. Allen shows her aptitude for cherry-picking data. (Nov. 6, 13A, “Why did so many Latinos in Texas vote for Trump?”) What are the exact vote totals for Zapata County? They show 2,032 votes for President Donald Trump versus 1,820 for Joe Biden. And as the map indicates, Zapata County is an anomaly in a valley that remains awash in blue.
Why not mention next-door counties such as Webb (61% and 42,000 votes for Biden)? The total vote for Trump from the seven counties he won along the entire border was about 15,000.
This was indeed a referendum on Trump. As far as “unpacking the motivations” of the voters she mentions, there are so few that Allen could interview a good percentage of them.
- Terry Roach, Benbrook
Election gave us a difficult answer
Now is the time to look in the mirror and appraise who we are. Nearly half of us voted for a continuing non-response to the pandemic, as if 230,000 dead Americans is just a number. Eight months of the equivalent of three airliners crashing daily, and half of us chose to do nothing about it.
Half of us are OK with kids in cages, making nice with dictators, abandoning allies and flagrant corruption — and the unending lying.
We can no longer say, “This isn’t who we are.” Rather, it is exactly who we have become.
- Charles Stonick, Granbury
Shouting down, not debating
At a recent drive-in rally for vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris in the Rio Grande Valley, many supporters of President Donald Trump disrupted the event by shouting from outside the campus fence. They showed senseless disrespect and determination to keep others from expressing opposing views.
Sadly, this is part of Trump’s effect. He works hard to keep people from voting and to invalidate ballots, while his supporters disrupt Democrats’ rallies to muzzle opposing views.
The next day, pickups with Trump flags tried to run a Joe Biden campaign bus off the road. Trump’s reaction was, “I love Texas!” This is not right from someone sworn to preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution.
Is this the society Texas wants?
- Raul Field Escandon, Houston
Save us from political ads
I would pay big money for a truly smart TV with a red button I could push to register that I have already voted. Then, the TV would eliminate all political ads from popping up on my screen for the rest of the campaign.
- Jay Adair, Colleyville
Rubbing salt in our wounds
Leonard Pitts Jr.’s Oct. 23 column is hateful, pure and simple. (11A, “We will not forget: You didn’t stand up”) Those of us, Republicans and Democrats, who are seeking ways to be civil and respectful of each other find it hard when we read words of vengeance and reprisals against anyone who does not agree with Pitts. “You didn’t stand up and we will not forget. We will not forgive” are words that should not be in the newspaper in these troubled times.
- Wanda Conlin, Fort Worth
This story was originally published November 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Heritage Foundation proves it’s conservatives who want to pack US courts."