Johnny Vaughn (“Wall? Let voters decide,” Feb. 19) seems confused about how representative democracy works. We elect people to make the decisions for us, so we aren’t voting on every single thing the government needs to do. For two years, Republicans controlled the White House and both Houses in Congress. Money for the wall wasn’t appropriated. Why? Because the elected officials didn’t think it was the right way to protect our border. Along came 2018, where Democrats took the lower House, the House of Representatives. Suddenly, Republicans claimed, the wall became an absolute necessity even though illegal border crossings are at a 50-year low and 90 percent of drugs come through ports of entry.

So what we have are our elected representatives from both parties overwhelmingly representing the will of the majority by not thinking a wall makes sense. At the same time, a January Gallup poll shows 60 percent of Americans are against the wall. Yet some petulant people, using the concept of a wall as a cover for racism, still talk about the wall rather than real border security.

No, there’s no need for a vote. There’s a need for reason.

David Teich

Spokane Valley