Liberal icon, former Rep. Barney Frank, who is dying of congestive heart failure, spoke out from hospice to deliver a stark warning to Democrats for swinging too far to the left on social issues — and said it will cost them with voters.
The 86-year-old former congressman, who is famous for fighting to legalize same-sex marriage and pushing to regulate Wall Street after the 2008 financial meltdown, hopes his lefty bona fides will help his message resonate with the far left.
“It’s precisely because I have been on the left that I have undertaken this,” Frank told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Many of us fought to get inequality on the Democratic agenda.”
“But the problem was, as we succeeded in bringing the mainstream of the left into a concern with inequality, we also enabled people who wanted to use that as a platform for a wide range of social and cultural changes, some of which the public isn’t ready for.”
Frank is set to release a scathing book rebuking the left flank of the Democratic Party later this year. His main message to lefties is to be more strategic about how far to push on social issues.
“We didn’t get to marriage until after these other things had been resolved,” Frank argued.
“And that’s what I’m suggesting that we do today. The analogy is males and female transsexuals playing sports that are for women.”
“I understand there’s a lot of anger about that,” he continued. “And I think, in the interest of the transgender community, as well as others, it would be better to go at that in a more granular way, and not simply announce that, if you don’t support it, you’re a homophobe.”
During a recent interview with Politico, the architect of the Dodd-Frank banking regulations also cited the defund the police and open borders push as examples of lefties going too far.
“It’s one thing to advocate something knowing that you’re going beyond the current viewpoints, and another to make it a litmus test,” Frank told Politico.
He used Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner as an example of Dems moving too far too the left — after he became the presumptive nomineed when Gov. Janet Mills dropped out.
“I think Platner actually shares with Trump this capacity toward making the most out of the anger that people feel,” the former congressman reflected.
“What I’m afraid of is that he won’t be able to translate that into enough votes.”
“But I am concerned that, among some in my party, there has been a flavor-of-the-month tendency, so that someone who is new and hasn’t been able to do much is somehow preferred over people who understand the importance of hard work to get controversial things adopted,” he went on.
Democrats view the race against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) as their top Senate pickup opportunity in the 2026 midterm election cycle.
Given Platner’s antics, including Reddit posts where he’s made controversial remarks about war and sexual assault and getting a tattoo resembling the “Totenkopf” emblem of the Nazi SS, some Democrats have concerns about his electability.
Despite his misgivings about the lefty base, Frank believes Democrats are well-positioned for victory in the midterms. He also believes that President Trump is crashing and burning in the political world.
“One of my regrets,” he told Politico, “is that I won’t see the continued implosion of Donald Trump.”
The former congressman believes that Trump has “temporarily changed” American politics — though he does believe things will return to normal.
“I was afraid beforehand,” he told “State of the Union.” “No, it turned out to show that he is an idiot savant. He was good at one thing and terrible at everything else.”
“So that gives me some hope, because he is going to show up with bad results. I say in the book early on that the fate of liberal democracy versus authoritarian populism will depend in part on how Donald Trump does, and if he does badly, that discredits the whole operation,” he added.
“I am convinced that he does not have an appeal.”
