Hinson should face people where they are

Rep. Ashley Hinson tried to look courageous with her announcement that she wouldn't follow the Republican Party's guidance to step away from doing town halls because so many citizens have showed up to speak out against Trump and Musk smashing and trashing the federal government.

It's a ruse, of course. Hinson's vaunted "22-county tours" should be relabeled "doing the least I can do." She routinely holds small daytime town halls in remote places — typically with compliant and docile MAGA supporters. The “virtual town halls" (phone calls) are dominated by softball questions and fawning commenters.

The nine or 10 least-populated counties in her district combined do not equal the population of Black Hawk County. And they're only half the population of Linn County. Let's see the congresswoman face people in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, and Dubuque in the evening on weekdays — or on the weekend — in rooms large enough to accommodate constituents who truly need to be heard.

Craig Hlas

Cedar Rapids