John,
The temperature of our politics is way too high right now — and no matter what the media says, far-right extremists are way more to blame than peaceful demonstrators.
Far-right activists just harassed my sister Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Capitol steps in a disgusting move to try to belittle the work that we're doing in Congress. They asked obscene questions of me and other members of Congress in an attempt to embarrass us and get attention online.
And it's important to not forget that this harassment is also of a piece with the death threats regularly received by members of the progressive caucus like us, representatives on the January 6th committee, and anyone who stands up to the far right.
There's an extremist movement at the heart of the GOP, and it will take all of us coming together to beat it back. It's encouraged by the party's leaders and abetted by those who look the other way. They're united in their attempt to strip us of our rights. These people are going after progressives like Alexandria and me — particularly progressives of color — because they don't think we deserve our seats in Congress.
When I first ran for office I just wanted to serve my community a bit more than I could do as a middle school principal. I will never lose sight of that in Washington, no matter how many hateful clowns try to stop us.
Thank you for standing by our movement.
Peace and love,
Jamaal Bowman
