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If You Care Deeply About A Cause And You Are Then Engaged On Behalf Of That Cause In An Activity That Makes You Feel Very Good And Very Brave And You're Really In Solidarity With All Your Friends, And You're Enjoying It, You're Probably Not Advancing The Cause Very Much, Because You're Spending All Your Time With People You Agree With Cheering Each Other On And Not Engaging.

-Barney Frank

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If You Care Deeply

Barney Frank

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If You Care Deeply About A Cause And You Are Then Engaged On Behalf Of That Cause In An Activity That Makes You Feel Very Good And Very Brave And You're Really In Solidarity With All Your Friends, And You're Enjoying It, You're Probably Not Advancing The Cause Very Much, Because You're Spending All Your Time With People You Agree With Cheering Each Other On And Not Engaging.

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The Best Antidote To Prejudice Is Reality.

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I'm Used To Being In The Minority. I'm A Left-handed, Gay Jew. I've Never Felt, Automatically, A Member Of Any Majority.

There Is A Correlation Between People Who Attack Same-sex Marriage And Have Difficulty Maintaining Their Own.

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The Rights Of The People Who Have Done Terrible Things Are Hard To Defend. You Have To Keep Pointing Out, The Question Is The Process To Determine Whether They've Done The Terrible Things.

Martin Luther King Said, And It Is Sadly Still True, That One Of The Most Segregated Times In America Is The Hour Of Worship.

Going Before An Audience Of People Who Expect You To Be Funny Is Tough. Going Before An Audience That Expect You To Be Boring, And Then Being A Little Funny, Is Much Easier. I Prefer Easier.

Capitalism Works Better From Every Perspective When The Economic Decision Makers Are Forced To Share Power With Those Who Will Be Affected By Those Decisions.

The Most Active People In The Country Know Different Things, And Because Each One Tends To Hear Mostly And Deal Mostly With People With Whom They Agree, They Are Reinforced Not Simply In The Conviction That They Are Right, Which Is Totally Appropriate, But That They Are The Majority. So You Have Both Sides, The Left And The Right, Thinking That The Majority Of The Country Is Really With Them.

I Think There Were Two Criticisms You Can Make Of Donald Trump`s Involvement In The Health Care Bill. First Of All, There Were Times When He Wasn`t Being Helpful. Secondly, There Were Times When He Was Trying To Be Helpful. I`m Not Sure Which One Did More Damage.

They Have To Convert Our Agenda Into Something Aggressive. Two Guys Wanting To Be Happy Together Are Invading Their Marriages. Helping A Kid Who's Getting Beaten Up In School Is Promoting Homosexuality. If You Gave Me A Million Dollars, I Wouldn't Know How To Promote Homosexuality.

It Is Because The Fight Against The Harshest Aspects Of Unrestricted Capitalism Is Therefore A Political Problem And Not An Intellectual One That Community Action Remains So Essential.

There Was A Degree Of Interventionism In American Foreign Policy, The Notion That We Must Be The Superpower And We Have To Intervene Everywhere, That I Think Makes No Sense.

There Are No Moderate Republicans Left, With The Exception Of A Few Who Would Vote With Us When It Doesn’t Make Any Difference,” Frank Said. “it’s The Most Rigid Ideological Party Since Before The Civil War. … The Bumper Sticker I’m Going To Have Printed Up For Democrats This Year Is, ‘we’re Not Perfect, But They’re Nuts.’

For Many Of Those Who Had Historically Supported Welfare Programs In The Broadest Sense, It Was Perfectly Reasonable To Enact Legislation In Which Poor People Were The Objects Of Efforts To Assist Them.

Welfare Programs

But Here Too It Should Be Noted That The President's Approach Was To First Ask The Repressive And Brutal Taliban To Surrender Osama Bin Laden To Us, And Only After That Government Refused To Do That Did We Invade.

For The Trustees To Turn Away From The Entirely Reasonable Request Of The Students That A Hearing-impaired Individual Be Made President Of The College Is A Very Unfortunate Expression Of Insensitivity.

In America, Unlike England, Unlike Israel, Unlike Japan, Other Democracies, We Have Elections That Have Staggered Terms.

Most People Who Are Activists And Are Concerned About Issues Get Their Information From Sources Which Reinforce Their Opinions And Give Them The Facts That They Want To Hear.

There Is Parallels These Two Great Men John Mccain And Ted Kennedy Of Great Impact In The Senate, You Don`t Agree With Everything They Did But Certainly They Had Major Impacts As Senators. Their One Major Political Failure Not To Be Elected President But That Didn`t Stop Them From Having Enormous Impact And At Roughly The Same Age, Exactly The Same Disease. It`s Kind Of A Poignant Sad Parallel.

These Two Entities Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Are Not Facing Any Kind Of Financial Crisis. The More People Exaggerate These Problems, The More Pressure There Is On These Companies, The Less We Will See In Terms Of Affordable Housing.

Affordable Housing

We All Have The Right To Call Each Other Names. Rudeness Is A Deeply Held Constitutional Value.

Trying To Avert Foreclosures, Once You Can't Just Force The Banks To Do It As A Condition Of Getting Aid, Means That You Have To Put Some Public Money Into It Or You Have To Do Other Things That Are Politically Unpopular. From The Macroeconomic Standpoint There Is Overwhelming Need To Help People Reduce What They Owe So That We Don't Get The Foreclosures And We Don't Get People Kicked Out Of Their Homes. On The Other Hand, There Is Great Resistance Politically To Helping People, Not All Of Whom Would Be Worth Recipients Of The Help.

It Is, Of Course, Further Indication That A Fundamentalist Right Has Really Taken Over Much Of The Republican Party, People Might Cite George Bush As Proof That You Can Be Totally Impervious To The Effects Of Harvard And Yale Education.

The Public Is Ready Now For A Safety Net For The Middle Class, Something Not Just For The Poor, But For Everyone Who Will Need Help, From Time To Time, In Order To Own A Home, Educate Their Kids, Keep Themselves Healthy Or Have Something To Retire On.

I Do Have Things I Would Like To See Adopted On Behalf Of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual And Transgender People: They Include The Right To Marry The Individual Of Our Choice; The Right To Serve In The Military To Defend Our Country; And The Right To A Job Based Solely On Our Own Qualifications. I Acknowledge That This Is An Agenda, But I Do Not Think That Any Self-respecting Radical In History Would Have Considered Advocating People's Rights To Get Married, Join The Army, And Earn A Living As A Terribly Inspiring Revolutionary Platform.

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Practice Of Medicine

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Presumption Of Innocence

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Funny Graduation

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There Is An Irony That The Most Active Anti-gay Groups Are Al-qaeda And The American Right Wing.

And I Think There Is Too Much Bloviating Around From Politicians.

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Equality Under The Law

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I Don't Think Donald Trump Is The Right Person Because I Very Much Disagree With Him.

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I Can Tell You About Health Care And Also About The Financial Reform Bill. The Barack Obama, The President Personally And His Administration Officials At His Direction Were Very Much Involved.

We Don't Get Ourselves Dry Cleaned.

I Do Not Believe That The Federal Government Should Treat Adults Who Choose To Smoke Marijuana As Criminals.

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Ridicule Is About The Most Powerful Weapon Possible.

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Ronald Reagan Believes In The Free Market Like Some People Believe In Unicorns.

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The Issue Is Not That Morals Be Applied To Public Policy, It's That Conservatives Bring Public Policy To Spheres Of Our Lives Where It Should Not Enter.

[democrats] Are Trying On Every Front To Increase The Role Of Government.

Community Action Is As Valuable A Principle On The International Level As It Has Been Domestically.

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I Have Been Mislabeled As A Big Advocate Of Low-income Home Ownership Over Rental.

For Most Of My Life, I Have Eaten To Deal With Stress.

Dealing With Stress

I Am Not Aware Of Any Specific Provision That Mandates Any Tightening Of Lending To Small Business Other Than A Requirement That People Who Lend And Then Sell That Loan Be Prepared To Take A Part Of The Risk. And I'm Proud Of That.

Serving In Congress Is Like Having A Second Shot At High School.

We Were Giving Advice For The Single-worst Idea To Come Forward From A Group That's Been Rife With Them, It Would Be This: The Idea Is This: Let's Make The Tax Code Of America Better For Very Rich People; Let's Give Substantial Tax Relief To The Richest People We Can Find. Forget About The Person Making $40,000 A Year And Paying Social Security Payroll Tax. Forget About All Those Other People Paying Income Tax; We're Here To Give Tax Relief To The Richest 2% Of America.

Disruption Never Helps Your Cause. ... It Just Looks Like You're Afraid To Have Rational Discussion.

I Am Very Proud Of The Role I Played In Getting Legal Equality For People Who Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender, And In Helping Get Rid Of The Prejudice By Being Visible About It, Helping To Block The Conviction Of Bill Clinton Of Impeachment.

Today, Many People Take For Granted The Notion That People Whose Lives Are Going To Be Very Heavily Affected By Public Policies Should Have A Say In How They Are Formulated And Carried Out.

If People Knew Of Ethics Violations, They Should Have Sent Them To The Ethics Committee. If You Think There Was Serious Ethics Violation That Ought To Be Looked At, You Don't Hold It Back For Retaliatory Purposes.

I Was Still Closeted, But From The Day I Decided To Run For Office, Knowing That I Was Gay, I Decided That I Would, Of Course, Still Be Closeted But That I Would Work Very Hard For Gay Rights. It Would Be Totally Dishonorable, Being Gay, Not To Do That. So I Had That As Kind Of A Secondary Agenda.

Legislators Have A Formal Set Of Responsibilities To Work Together, But There's No Hierarchy.

Working Together

I Believe It Is A Good Thing To Get Rid Of Gaddafi. But Does America Have To Do Everything?

If You Care Deeply About A Cause And You Are Then Engaged On Behalf Of That Cause In An Activity That Makes You Feel Very Good And Very Brave And You're Really In Solidarity With All Your Friends, And You're Enjoying It, You're Probably Not Advancing The Cause Very Much, Because You're Spending All Your Time With People You Agree With Cheering Each Other On And Not Engaging.

You Know, When I Was In College, There Was A Big Debate: Do Unions Raise Wages? Well, With Regard To Industrial Unions, There Were Arguments Back And Forth -- International Competition. It Is Now Clear, I Think, That Whether Or Not You Think Unions Raised Wages 50 Years Ago, The Absence Of Unions And Their Weakness That Is Inflicted By Anti-union Public Policy Depresses Wages. The Fact Is That People Who Are Not Represented, In The Service Industries In Particular, Are The Victims Of Policies Which Depress Their Wages.

Lawyers Are Very, Very Good At Keeping You Out Of Prison, But They Will Sacrifice Your Reputation And Credibility To Do So.

Moderate Republicans Are Reverse Houdinis. They Tie Themselves Up In Knots And Then Tell You They Can’t Do Anything Because They’re Tied Up In Knots.

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