Republicans Need To Drop Their “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” Approach to Governing
Fans of the classic 1970s TV show “The Brady Bunch” will remember the recurring theme that often ran through the show: middle sister “Jan’s” ongoing frustration with her inability to outshine, out star and out perform her older sister “Marcia.”
In the 1971 episode, “Her Sister’s Shadow,” Jan can no longer endure the seemingly constant comparisons, and her endless inability to match or better Marcia.
Tired of always being compared to Marcia, and frustrated at always falling short and sick of always hearing how great Marcia is, Jan erupts with a line that not only encapsulates the adolescent angst a middle child might feel on the short end of such constant comparisons, but delivers what becomes one of TVs most iconic lines:
“Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!”
It was funny as a line in a TV sitcom fifty years ago.
It’s anything but funny when the current President of the United States and his fellow Republicans - including Iowans in Congress - adopt a similar wail as political strategy.
The cry from Trump and his fellow Republicans today:
“Biden! Biden! Biden!”
The election was over eight months ago. Donald Trump has been president for nearly six months. Yet Trump and his fellow Republicans continue to attack Joe Biden, like Election Day is next Tuesday.
It is tiresome. It’s not like they don’t have other things to do, like:
Actually doing their jobs;
Developing policies that work for non-billionaires;
Selling their own policies to the American people.
They are doing none of that because:
They are blisteringly incompetent at their jobs and more interested in advancing political ideology and authoritarian fascism than governing in a democracy.
They are fresh out of policies, mostly, that work for non-billionaires.
They are more interested in hiding their own policies from the American people because the American people do not support those policies
What brings all this to mind is the mind numbingly stupid conspiracy theory the sitting President of the United States - Donald J. Trump - re-posted this week:
Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and robots took his place.
I did not make that up.
The President of the United States actually re-posted that. With a straight face and no disclaimer.
Based on that utter nonsense Trump has ordered the Justice Department to begin an investigation to get to the bottom of it - especially the Biden’s administration’s use of the autopen to sign Joe Biden’s signature and thereby, Trump claims, deceive the American public about Biden’s mental state.
If ever there was evidence of a mentally addled President of the United States and a circumstance that cries out for activation of the 25th Amendment on those grounds, we are looking at it in Donald Trump and that post.
Right here.
Right now.
The claim that Biden was executed in 2020 and robots replaced him is absurd on its face, especially when they have spent - and are STILL spending - so much time attacking Joe Biden for things they say he did in 2020 and after 2020. It’s clear their own narrarive doesn’t support the abusrdity that conspiracy peddles.
So let’s go to the use of an autopen.
Presidents have used autopens - a device that reproduces an individual’s signature - since at least the days of John F. Kennedy. Thousands of times a day. Even Trump acknowledges that he has used the autopen. It is used widely throughout the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and throughout the business world.
There is nothing wrong with, sinister, or deceitful about a president using an autopen.
That Trump would float such nonsense shows how far he and his gangs are willing to go to keep President Biden in the spotlight.
Why?
To keep the outrage machine their brand of politics depends on for both fuel and oxygen churning;
To keep the spotlight off their own incompetencies;
To divert attention from their own lack of policies that help, rather than hurt, Americans;
to make sure the American people are looking away as Trump and his gangs seek to destroy democracy and establish authoritarian fascism in America.
The sad part is that members of Iowa’s congressional delegation - while not yet climbing aboard the “Biden was replaced by robots in 2020” Biden Bashing Bandwagon - frequently engage in other forms of it.
Well into the Trump administration they are all still bashing Biden for the economy, military readiness, inflation, foreign policies, the farm economy, etc.
The truth is that Biden left America far stronger than he found it when he succeeded Donald Trump at the end of the Trump 1.0 term. He ended the Covid 19 pandemic Trump let fester, rebuilt the economy that collapsed under Trump 1.0, expanded health insurance, built the strongest economy in American history, added millions of jobs, achieved the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, presided over the creation of more new small business start ups in American history, and launched a major effort to rebuild US infrastructure. For starters.
Trump and the Republicans are offering nothing that would even come close to creating a record like that - so of course their only recourse, as they see things, is to trash Biden, Biden’s record, and to lie about both.
What Trump and his fellow Republicans are trying desperately to accomplish with their Biden bashing is to keep Americans from remembering this:
Republicans control all three branches of government;
They don’t have a plan for actually fixing anything;
and even if they did, they are apparently incapable of enacting it.
If Biden left things in as poor shape as they claim - it is their job to fix things now. They don’t have a clue about how, or the ability to do, that.
Which is why they want to still focus on Biden with attacks fueled with lies.
“Biden! Biden! Biden!”
It’s getting old, Republicans.
It’s time to move on to something new: like actually doing your jobs, preserving our democracy, and making America stronger, not weaker.
WEEKLY OVER DUE FARM BILL TRACKER: 617 days
617 days have passed since the 2018 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2023, without Congress passing a new one. (Total days as of Sunday, 06/08/2025).
Two thirds of Iowa’s congressional delegation serves on the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees: Grassley (R-IA) and Ernst (R-IA) in the Senate; Nunn (R-3rd IA) and Feenstra (R-4th IA) in the House.
There is little indication Congress will act any time soon to pass a new Farm Bill, or if it does - given the Trump wrecking ball and the eagerness of Republicans in Congress to follow him in that effort - that it will be helpful to farmers.
This column is published as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative (IWC). This kind of local, independent commentary is an experiment that aims to fill in the gap created by market forces that require many traditional media outlets to cut back the range of what they offer. So far, it’s working, thanks to those of you who are able to become paid subscribers.
We do not accept advertising, so the only source of revenue for IWC writers is from those who pay to subscribe to individual publications like this one.
The “Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains” column keeps a sharp eye on the Iowa congressional delegation, and frequently goes “behind the curtains” to tell you what’s really happening in Washington, DC and in politics.
If you are able to support this effort with a paid subscription, a free subscription, a “Restack,” or a “Share’ please do so. It makes this column possible. and helps others find us. We even like the “likes” if you see the kind of opinion, commentary and analysis you’d like to see more often.
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative (IWC)
Please explore all of the IWC columns (listed below) and consider a paid or free subscription to several. IWC writers are all professional writers. care deeply about Iowa, and are some the best writers and thinkers in the state. They offer top notch reporting and commentary, as well as a wide range of features. seldom available from traditional media as changing market forces limit what they are able to provide.
Please explore, and try to support five if you can, any way you can.
I wish republicans would spend at least half as much time doing their jobs as they do looking for someone or something to blame. The projection in their words blaming Biden for all that is wrong with our country is mind numbing. You nailed it when you wrote they have no ideas and no interest in governing. As for the voters, when will they ever learn 🎶
Well you can't blame the drafters of the Constitution or the 14th Amendment for having a Bozo in office. They foresaw the problem and dealt with it. I don't understand why Democrats don't point out every single day that this clown isn't eligible to be President. How about for the next bogus executive order Trump signs, somebody argue he isn't eligible to be President and has no authority to issue it.
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
Let me clarify. If you are an insurrectionist, you can't be President unless 2/3 of each branch of Congress says you can be. The reason for this Amendment is that insurrectionists have a habit of trying to destroy and take over the government and they can't be trusted to hold the office. Sound familiar? Anyone we know?
What's the point of having a Constitution if you give it the same force and effect as the toilet paper hanging in your bathroom?