Dear Senator Alting,
As a constituent of yours, you have betrayed me. As an Indiana citizen, you have betrayed me. And you have betrayed others who are constituents and Indiana citizens. That is, if you actually vote to redistrict congressional districts. Even if that never occurs, you have personally let me down by favoring such a vote, for we did not learn in our Jefferson HS Civics classes to win in the governmental arena by unfair means, by means that shut citizens out of rightful representation.
Or to put it in the words of a highly regarded former Indiana governor, "My fellow Indiana Republicans shouldn’t cave to White House pressure to redistrict. While the outcome sought is one I support, the tactic being employed to get there is not, and I hope earnestly that my state’s leaders will politely decline to participate. The arguments to which Indiana Republicans are being subjected are, to be charitable, unpersuasive." Mitch Daniels, Washington Post Op-ed, 10/20/25
Further, he states, "The attempt [to carve out a winnable GOP district in the northwest], which might not even work, would, I’m convinced, come at the expense of public disgust; Hoosiers, like most Americans, place a high value on fairness and react badly to its naked violation."
As Mr. Daniels adds, by an appropriate quote from human rights activist Garry Kasparov, who said of his fellow Russians, “What we didn’t understand is that democracy is a process, not a result. The minute you decide that your guy, with all the best intentions … can violate the rules, rig the results … that’s it.”
Mr. Daniels further accurately observes, "As with other aspects of the currently debased public square —lawfare, demonizing opponents, the normalization of infantilism and profanity in public discourse — someone has to lead in climbing out of the mudhole. The side that does will not be unilaterally disarming; it will be establishing itself as the proper custodian of a system that most Americans still want to trust and believe in."
Thus, Mr. Alting, your announcement that "I support President Trump, and I support plans to redistrict our maps." is countered by Mr. Daniels assertion that "Their duty [your duty] is to the citizens and the future of our state, not to a national political organization or a temporary occupant of the White House. And doing the right thing, by the way, really would be its own reward." Yes, "the right thing."
Not long after Trump had been elected in 2016, I, along with another person or two, whom I cannot remember, sat in your office, Mr. Alting, discussing a local matter, and you expressed a measure of disdain for the man who had come to occupy the White House. Have you now become the JD Vance of Tippecanoe County--the Vance who in that same time period had spoken of Trump as "America's Hitler?" For you now state that your redistricting support "will help to ensure the president also has the support he needs in Congress to continue passing his bold agenda that is making a positive difference in the lives of Hoosiers." That you can appraisingly say that there is a "positive difference" in our lives, against evidence otherwise, and that you can ignore that the man created a narrative of a stolen election, allowed an attack on Congress, and during the past 10 months has been acting crudely, cruelly, unlawfully, vengefully, in an increasingly authoritarian manner, and worse, is so greatly disappointing--and not the Ron Alting I once thought I knew. (And Sunday, 10/26/25, Trump demanded that there be a ban on mail-in and early voting for the coming midterm elections!)
Mr. Alting, please consider doing the honorable act of changing your stance by saying that you now agree that the honorable Mr. Daniels has the stronger argument.
Working for an honorable world,
Douglas Paprocki