1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

I call on my state elected officials to protect our state constitution and to respect democracy as we know it. I can't state this more eloquently than Brad Wheeler did, so please allow me to utilize his words for this. Let’s be completely clear about what’s happening in Utah right now: our leaders did not call a special session to deal with the Great Salt Lake. They did not call one for toxic inversion and smog. They did not call one for housing affordability, water scarcity, or infrastructure strain. They called a special session to rewrite the rules of democracy. That tells you everything you need to know about their priorities. This isn’t about urgency for clean air, safe water, or livable cities. This is about political power — who holds it, who gets to keep it, and how insulated it can be made from the voters. Utah already voted against gerrymandering. The public already spoke. And now, instead of respecting that outcome, the Governor and legislative leadership are moving to change the Constitution itself so they can override the voters legally next time. That isn’t governing. That’s strategic disenfranchisement. We are living through overlapping crises that affect every single Utah household: • A collapsing lake that threatens our air and economy • A water supply under historic pressure • Smog that literally shortens lives • Housing costs that push families out of the communities they built • Growth that outpaces infrastructure at every level And yet the one emergency that magically rises to the top of the calendar is this: how to reduce the political power of the very people living with all of those problems. If this were really about responsible governance, the emergency would be water. If this were about public health, the emergency would be air quality. If this were about stability, the emergency would be housing. But the emergency they chose is democracy itself. That’s not coincidence. That’s intent. And when elected leaders decide that voter-approved policy is an obstacle instead of a mandate, they are no longer governing with the people — they are governing against them. This is not about left vs. right. This is about who decides. Utahns already decided once. Now, the state’s leadership is working to ensure that decision doesn’t matter next time. And that is the most dangerous signal of all.