He was interviewed on NPR about the gay rights march that happened this Sunday:
I think too many people, frankly, who share my view that this is going to be a waste of time, are afraid to say so because they will be considered insufficiently devoted to the cause. Rather than chanting broad slogans about equality when most members of Congress won’t even be in D.C., time and energy would be better spent on old-fashioned lobbying for specific legislation. The most successful, militant, political organization in America is the National Rifle Association. And they’ve never had a march, they’ve never had a shoot-in. They don’t do anything other than lobby members. They write, and they call, and they talk to members.
Emphasis mine. There’s a tendency to any movement to want to oust heretics, and people that question the faith. But I can relate to Frank’s irreverence, and his assertion of all that comes along with it.
It’s possible that I’m remembering incorrectly. (I do admit to often ignoring anything after “Democrat Barney Frank…”)
But as I recall, for the previous 8 or so years, Frank has been very supportive of these protests, instead of insisting on “old-fashioned lobbying”.
The issue here might be now that The Won is in office, Frank now says these sorts of protests are counterproductive and distracting not that they’re counterproductive as a rule.
IOW: He’s upset that they’re protesting Obama, not just that they’re protesting or calling people out for being “insufficiently devoted”… Which, as memory serves me, he used to be one of those.
I just wish he could make the big leap he keeps edging up to.
From an inteview with Esquire about decriminalization. The separated out text is my emphasis.
“BF: Here’s one thing I would say – there’s a great intellectual flaw at work here. People say, “Oh, you want the government to approve of smoking marijuana.†And the answer is, no, there should be a small number of things that the government makes illegal,
…but the great bulk of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business. People can make their own choices.
ESQ: What about the “public-square†argument that we need to keep prostitutes off the streets and pot-smokers on the run in order to promote a higher level of morality and civic order?
BF: One, I don’t think it’s immoral to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, even though they may make you sick. Morality to me is the way you treat other people, not the way you treat yourself. John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty makes a great deal of sense in that regard. I wish more people read him.
ESQ: My father forced me to read On Liberty when I was fourteen years old. I still haven’t recovered.
BF: He deals very thoughtfully with some of the objections.”