Rep. Blake Moore and I are members of different political parties and have different points of view on almost all issues. Nevertheless I have held out hope that he would be a moderate Republican and avoid the extreme behavior of most elected members of his party. I actually felt empathy for him during the recent town hall at Weber High School as most of the questions came from the crazy anti-vax, COVID denying, conspiracy espousing crowd.

But then came this past week when Representative Paul Gosar, Republican from Arizona, posted online a doctored animated video with a character representing himself murdering a character representing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat from New York. This would be a horrific and unconscionable thing to do at any time but especially now, in this charged political environment, just 10 months after domestic terrorists stormed the capital, putting the lives of members of Congress at risk.

Sensible people everywhere and of all political persuasions were rightly disgusted and alarmed by Gosar’s act and the video. The House of Representatives, for one of the few times in history, voted to censure Rep. Gosar. I was extremely disappointed to see that Rep. Moore voted against the censure. Apparently he supports this sort of thing. What else would he have us believe?

With this vote he demonstrated where his allegiance lies. He is just as beholden to the extreme leadership of the Republican Party as Rep. Boebert and former Pres. Trump, both of whom predictably issued statements of support for Gosar. Blake Moore showed a complete lack of political courage as he willingly followed the lead of the extremists in his party.

Do we really want to be represented by a man who apparently thinks it is okay to threaten the life of a fellow member of Congress? Decent people everywhere, and especially in the First District of Utah, need to emphatically say no. This is not the sort of representation we expect or deserve.

Michael Bowcut

Pleasant View

Newsletter