To the Editor:

At the March 7 Farm Forum (“Davidson addresses national issues,” March 10), in response to a question about political divisiveness, Rep. Warren Davidson described a bill that passed in the House but couldn’t get a vote in the Senate. He recalled asking Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-NC) why the Senate wouldn’t vote on a bipartisan bill from the House. Jones’ answer? Because it would pass.

I’m sure that having legislators beholden to corporate and big-money contributors played a role in the congressional inaction Davidson described.

Legislators at all levels of government must be beholden to you and me, not to corporate and big-money contributors whose identities and agendas are often unknown.

We need a constitutional amendment that makes clear money spent on elections is not a form of protected speech, and constitutional rights belong to human beings only, not to corporate entities.

We must urge Davidson to co-sponsor House Joint Resolution 48, the We the People Amendment. In a chat after the Farm Forum, he told me his support was unlikely.

Jones himself decried the influence of money in politics. He co-sponsored H.J.R. 48 twice before his death in 2019.

Jones was a person open to changing his mind. In 2002, he voted to invade Iraq. By 2005, however, after attending a memorial service for a fallen Marine and gathering more information, he was regretting his vote, bucking the party line and pushing for an exit strategy. To help atone for his failure to demand proof of Iraqi WMDs, he wrote personal letters to the families of Americans who died in conflicts following 9/11.

Let’s persuade Davidson to change his mind about H.J.R. 48.

Deborah Hogshead

Troy