Will Iowa's Congressional Delegation Push Back Against New Republican Attack on Families?
With J.D. Vance's recent nonsense, the self-proclaimed "pro-family" party proves it is no such thing as it delivers another twist in an election year filled with surprises.
For decades, Republicans have argued and voted for policies that are destructive to American families. That is just a fact. It hasn’t stopped them, of course, from claiming - falsely - to be the “pro-family” party.
They are, of course, no such thing.
Oh, sure, they introduce or co-sponsor the occasional pro-family sounding legislation, but rarely actually pass those bills. The bills they introduce mostly make good fodder for election year speeches along the campaign trail.
Mostly, what they have done “for” families is to enable the failure of many hundreds of thousands if not millions of families.
Hundreds of studies across decades of research identify financial stress as a leading cause of divorce. Yet the party that claims to be “pro-family” has voted for decades to keep the minimum wage as low as possible, making it hard - if not impossible - for hard working families to pay for even the bare necessities of life.
A real pro-family party would be working for a fair minimum wage and insisting on a livable wage. They do neither. Never have.
Even though the Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - is all that stands between millions of families and crushing financial ruin when unexpected and uninsured health challenges erupt - Republicans have vowed to repeal it since before the ink from President Obama’s pen was dry when he signed it into law.
They have fiercely opposed labor unions which have worked for decades to deliver the economic justice to working families big corporations would never grant without workers joining together to negotiate fair wage and working conditions contracts - even as those same corporations rake in record profits, these days often fueled by blatant price gouging.
Death also breaks up families.
Again, their long opposition to Obamacare does nothing for families when Mom or Dad - or one of the kids - gets gravely ill but timely health care is out of reach without health insurance, and their sickness becomes fatal.
Policy-wise, Republicans have never been a family friendly party.
That lack of family friendliness in recent weeks, however, has started getting down right weird.
Recent calls by Republicans to ban IVF procedures, which allow couples who cannot have children to work around the medical issues and create a family anyway, have many scratching their heads wondering how that can possibly be considered pro-family. It seems to be - by definition - anti-family.
Now, the 2024 Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Senator J.D. Vance, is opening up a surprising new line of attack: step children are not part of anyone’s family beyond the biological parent.
That is the root thinking behind his “childless cat ladies” smear against women, and Vice President Kamala Harris in particular.
He alleges that Harris has no children.
Tell that to the two kids to whom she is a Mother, who came into her family with her marriage to the now-Second Gentleman of the United States Doug Emhoff.
Let’s take the politics out of this discussion for a minute and consider Vance’s claim as it would apply to a classic TV show everybody loves: the blended TV family series, The Brady Bunch.
According to Vance’s thinking Carol Brady was Mom to only the girls, and Mike Brady was Dad to only the boys. Mr. and Mrs. Brady, were apparently only Mom and Dad to their own respective biological offspring - and mere housemates with the others.
That’s absurd.
It’s also a very strange theory, given that the man who named Vance as his Vice Presidential running mate lives by his own very expansive definition of marriage and family - one that has room for and includes serial adultery, the occasional rape and sexual abuse of others outside his marriage, and even sex and six figure hush money arrangements with porn stars.
But children in blended, loving families? No way!
You may have noticed, Trump has said nothing to call back or correct Vance’s smear against Harris and her family, and for that matter, millions of other women.
Vance’s attempt to take step kids and step parents out of the definition of family is hurtful and destructive for blended families in real life.
Real step kids and real step parents are now being told by a man, who could be a heartbeat away from the presidency if elected, that their family is not legitimate. It is not a real, actual family. It is something to deny and denigrate.
It’s not much of a leap to extend that warped kind of thinking to families that include adopted kids. Remember now, like thoroughbred race horses, the defining feature of “family” to Vance and his crowd is the biological blood line.
We all need to push back against this twisted nonsense. Will Iowa Republicans in Congress do so? They haven’t yet.
To date, Iowa’s congressional Republicans have had nothing to say about Vance’s noxious theory of what constitutes a family, or defines parenthood, as it applies to Vice President Harris - and by extension to thousands of Iowa’s blended families.
Radio silence. Crickets. No Profiles in Courage here yet.
To their credit, in the past, they have been pretty supportive of measures to encourage adoption. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) have supported increased tax incentives for adoption, as have Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA 03) and Ashley Hinson (R-IA 02).
Nunn and his wife adopted two sisters into their family in 2023. Nunn has also introduced legislation to encourage the adoption of siblings into families with a doubling of the adoption tax credit for families who adopt siblings.
That’s all encouraging.
But given the delegation’s silence on the step kids/step parents smear against Harris and others, and their own history of flip flopping on issues to march in line with Donald Trump’s views - and he’s the guy who picked Vance as his running mate - it is a little concerning that not one of Iowa’s congressional Republicans have spoken up to defend the Vice President against J.D. Vance’s ignorant nonsense.
It would be nice if they did.
A lot of step kids, adopted kids and blended family parents in Iowa could benefit by hearing Iowa’s congressional delegation defend their families against the hurtful bile Vance is spewing when he attacks Vice President Harris and her blended family.
Partisan hack article. Defend Kamala’s past stand on policy and her prosecutorial record. Oh, and her getting started by using her female credit card.