Barney Frank, who spent over three decades in Congress, passed away Wednesday at 86.
I marked the occasion by reviewing the book he wrote about the need for his beloved Democratic Party to moderate its positions on social and cultural issues, to help it recapture the millions of middle-class voters who have deserted it for the Republicans.
There’s a lot of straight talk in the book. Characteristically, Frank coins a witticism to describe social realities Republicans tackle but Democrats refuse to acknowledge, for fear of being labeled racist or otherwise retrograde: “notsapostas,” he called them—as in, things progressives are “not supposed to” talk about. Topping Frank’s list is the Democrats’ failure to show empathy for the victims of crime while they focus on the need for more social programs to combat its “root causes” among young black men. “Clinging to the notsaposta mindset has particularly hurt our party in the debate over how to respond to violent crime,” he argued. He urged liberals to attack poverty and racism without appearing to justify or mitigate violent criminal acts.
