MSE Symposium hosts Rep. Frank

U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) spoke about party politics and the health of the American political system at Shriver Hall on Tuesday as part of the MSE Symposium.

"The notion of partisanship in general as a bad thing is just wrong," said Frank as he discussed the media's use of the word "partisan" and "partisan bickering" as derogatory terms. Frank claimed that some of the country's most important philosophical and political debates were denigrated by being written off as political bickering, leading to much of the public becoming isolated from political issues.

"I believe that if you have a coherent set of ideas about public policy... and that if you can be rational than you should be a partisan," he said.

"In America today, parties are more important and mean more than possibly any time since the Civil War," he said. Frank traced the increasing division of the parties along the ideological model of Franklin Roosevelt for Democrats and Ronald Reagan for Republicans. Frank said that conservatives took over the Republican Party as members of each party realigned themselves over the past decades to become more coherent entities. "Parties will shift," he said. "Parties will co-opt people."

Frank cited environmental and international economic affairs as examples of this new division. "Many of the debates we had domestically in the '30s are the debates we're having internationally now," he said.

Frank also described the recent debate about the federal government's relationship with airports and airport security as one characterized by ideological party concerns. On the Republican's position in opposing federalized airport security, Frank said, "it's not a functional analysis, it's an ideological one."

Frank considered third party politics a predominantly ineffective way of approaching governmental reform, that the "Nader mistake...is to think of the Democratic Party as an entity with which he can bargain. The problem is that the Democratic Party is not an entity, it's a process."

He went on to contrast the two parties. "When conservatives get mad in this country they vote; when leftists get mad they demonstrate," said Frank, calling political demonstration "a vastly overrated form of activity."

"The more you enjoy expressing yourself politically," he said, "the less useful it is."

Frank, the first and one of only a few openly gay members of Congress, related his concerns about partisan politics to his concerns for the civil rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

"The two parties are increasingly divided" on the topic of gay concerns, he said. "Almost all the Republicans are on the wrong side, almost all the Democrats are on the right side."

Beyond that fact, there are still positive steps being taken. "One of the things that's striking to me is how much progress we've made," said Frank about gay rights in the country. When Frank worked as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in the early 1970's, the "people who were against [gay rights] were very explicit."

Frank explained that 40 years ago both parties were opposed to "fairness to gay people" and the term "psychopathic personality" was used to keep gay persons from entering the country.

When objections arose about the use of this terminology, "President [Kennedy] instructed his advisors to change the law to keep homosexuals out."

Frank said that the executive branch, the liberal Warren Court, and the other branches of government "all agreed that homosexuals should be kept out of the country." In 1965 the Immigration Reform Bill "tightened up the language to keep homosexuals from coming to America," changing the term of description from "psychopathic personality" to "sexual deviant."

Frank cited the Stonewall movement and the movement of gays to "stop lying about who we are" as an important part of the changed atmosphere. "Heterosexuals come out about 11 times a day," said Frank about the importance of sexuality and openness in personal life.

However, despite political gains on gay rights issues, Frank said that, now, 40 years after his experience with explicit anti-gay politics, "people who are opposed to this legislation won't give an honest reason why...People who are anti-gay rarely now say explicitly what they think."

Although President Bush verbally reprimanded Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson for their remarks blaming pro-choice members, homosexuals and other groups for the World Trade Center attack, Frank said "it doesn't mean these two bigoted fools won't be welcomed in the White House."

Frank talked about the possibility of same-sex marriage legislation but remarked, "there is a limit to how far in front of public opinion courts can go."

Frank elaborated his ideas on enacting anti-discrimination legislation in an interview and said that involving sexual orientation onto the Civil Rights Act was not a good idea.

"We don't want it on the Civil Rights Bill because the Civil Rights Bill includes affirmative action," he said. "We don't want affirmative action for gay people. That wouldn't work and it would be politically difficult."

Although it was not a "huge turnout," said MSE Symposium Co-Chair Gregor Feige, "I think everyone who went to this event definitely came out feeling like it was something productive. He made them think. You didn't have to just focus on [Sept. 11]. There's other things going on in the world and he sort of expanded people's focus."

Feige agreed with Frank's comments on third parties. "Realistically the best way to effect change is to become a member of the party and sort of shift it," said Feige.