News
Page 4
Street Roots •
Jan. 20-26, 2017
Barney Frank on Trump-era politics
The heavy-hitting Democrat from Massachusetts is bringing his game plan to Portland
BY EM ILY GREEN
S TA F F W R IT E R
n Jan. 26, the famously free-speaking
Barney Frank will deliver what will
undoubtedly be an invigorating
lecture titled “Democratic Values after
Trump: A Frank View” at Portland State
University.
The 12th annual Gus & Libby Solomon
Memorial Lecture, presented by The Harold
Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies*
will begin at 7 p.m. The
event is free to the
public, however seating
in the main event room
has sold o u t Overflow
What: “Democratic Values after
space with a live video
Trump: A Frank View,” Solomon
feed will be made
lecture with Barney Frank -
available on a first-
When: 7 p.m, Jan. 26
come, first-served basis
within Lincoln Hall, at
Where: Portland State University’s
1620 SW Park Ave.
Lincoln Hall, 1620 SW Park Aye,,
Frank served
Portland .
Massachusetts as a
prominent member of
Cost: Free
the U.S. House of
Seating: Tickets are sold out;
Representatives for 32
overflow space with a live video feed
years before retiring in
2013. As a
a
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co-authored the
sweeping financial
reform act known as Dodd-Frank, and he
tirelessly pushed fox gay equality and
increased housing for low-income
Americans.
Street Roots spoke with Frank in advance
of his Portland appearance, We began by
asking him if he thought - as the title of his
lecture might suggest - that Democratic
values need to shift under a Trump
Presidency.
“No,” he said. “It’s how you best fight for
them.”
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Emily G reen: And how would you say
that is?
B arney Frank: Well, T think we can take
advantage of a couple of things that he did.
First of all, for years, many of us in the
Democratic Party have been fighting against
unfair distribution. We were contested by
the argument that this is class warfare^ and
there was kind of an establishment
argument against that and overwhelming
Republican opposition to i t Interestingly
Trump, in his perverse way, has legitimized
talking about the unfairness of the
distribution, although the point we have to
make is, that having said that, virtually
every public policy he talks about, or m o st....
of them, is going in the opposite direction.
Secondly, I think we could welcome him
having said America doesn’t have to be as
involved in the rest of the world as we have
been. I think that once again, though he
says something that I think is sensible -
that we’ve been overextended - but then
does the opposite in terms of policy by
proposing a vast increase in the military
budget I think we could take him at his
word -- that yes, there is an unfairness in
the way the wealth is distributed, and yes,
America has been doing too much in other
countries, arid we’ve overcommitted
ourselves in the world - but (we could) in
fact advocate the policies that would make
sense given that, as opposed to his. Because
his specifics - it would conflict with his
general (position).
The other point we can make is, once
again, he talks about the need to stand up
for the average guy, to stand up against
some of the established interests, but his
policy goes in exactly the opposite direction
than what we should be doing. I’m just
pointing out, for instance, he’s the one who
wants to weaken the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau and allow the derivatives
market to get back out of control.
E.G.: As he did get elected saying there was
great unfairness in wealth distribution, do you
see an opportunity here for Democratic voters
and the voters who elected Trump to unite, at
least, on that?
B.F.: Some of the voters.
J think there is a chance for Democrats to
point out now that he has to deliver, that his
specific policies make things worse.
I think what we can do now is, first of all
when he starts making his policy proposals’
- he s already done that - is point out how
he s done the exact opposite of what he
said.
How is knocking people off Medicaid, for
example, going to make things more equal?
See FRANK, page 5
REUTERS/GARY
CAMERON
Barney Frank at
the Democratic
National
Convention, July
25,2016.