Barney Frank’s prescription for the left features Massachusetts to make a few points

With the way Barney Frank teased his forthcoming book in interviews last spring from hospice care, it should come as no surprise that the finished work draws more heavily from the Marx Brothers than Karl Marx, with multiple references to “Duck Soup” and other work from Groucho and Chico. 

The former Massachusetts congressman’s final press tour before his death in May previewed the main prescriptions from his new book, “The Hard Path to Unity: Why We Must Reform the Left to Rescue Democracy,” published this month.

Frank’s posthumous missive outlines his view of how the left lost support to populism by ignoring economic inequality and not distancing itself from “the dissidents” pushing for more social change than is politically acceptable. 

Part strategy session and part history lesson, the book traces the embrace of Keynesian economics after World War I, globalization debates in the 1990s and what Frank describes as an “outbreak of xenophobic populism after the financial crisis of 2008.” Against that broad backdrop, Frank makes occasional specific mentions of Massachusetts — about as often as he quotes the Marx brothers’ comedy. 

Michael Dukakis and Elizabeth Warren are introduced in passing as unsuccessful presidential candidates. While Frank labels “the dissident-formulated Green New Deal” as one progressive policy drawing public opposition, he never calls out by name its local champion, Sen. Ed Markey.

But Frank does use a pair of local anecdotes — one from his own time in Congress, one of an infamous figure in Boston politics — to illustrate his points. 

He recalls being troubled when environmentalists tried to block a commuter rail expansion between Boston and southeastern Massachusetts over concerns about “very slight damage” from reconstructing a swamp. On environmental and climate issues, Frank recommends policymakers rank problems based on their level of harm and the political cost of their solutions.

Big picture, Frank writes that a fight against populism relies in part on ensuring a political system that “not only is fair but is also perceived to be fair.” He says voters will only drop candidates who violate rules if they believe the rules protect them, too.

Frank says he wasn’t surprised that conservative never-Trumpers couldn’t dent the president’s popularity, thanks to the historical example of politicians like Louisiana’s Huey Long, New York’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Boston’s own James Michael Curley, a mayor, governor and congressman whose career also featured two prison stints.

Curley and the others, Frank writes, “flamboyantly championed victims of the established order” — like Boston’s Irish — and found success by fueling emotional fires. Alleged misbehavior helped them appear “as fellow sufferers at the hands of common oppressors.” 

Curley’s loss to a more ethical candidate, according to Frank, came only after “increasing numbers of economically secure, politically dominant Irish voters came to see Curley as more of an embarrassing anachronism than a savior.” 

Frank’s book ends with his eight rules for the left’s road ahead, one of which speaks straightforwardly to a well-known problem in Massachusetts: build more housing. 

Have you read Frank’s book, or are you planning to? Let me know your takeaways at [email protected]

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9:00 | Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure accepts written testimony on a pair of bills dealing with alcohol licenses in Avon and Rutland | More Info

9:00 | Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources accepts written testimony on a Sen. Feeney bill dealing with sewer services in Foxborough || More Info

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10:30 | Attorney General Campbell makes "major announcement" at a press conference. Press asked to RSVP to [email protected] | 20th floor, 1 Ashburton Pl., Boston

10:30 | Martin Luther King III joins Rep. Decker, patients, providers and advocates at an event focused on how obesity affects communities of color and the barriers patients face in accessing treatments, including medications like GLP-1s for weight loss. Massachusetts Coalition for Action on Obesity hosts | Room 222

11:00 | Water Resources Commission holds a public hearing on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority's request to increase how much water they take from the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs | Auditorium, Belchertown Town Hall, 2 Jabish St. | Zoom

1:00 | Republican nominee for U.S. Senate John Deaton tours Tri-County Vocational Technical High School | 147 Pond St., Franklin

1:00 | Boston Mayor Wu speaks at the ribbon cutting for Harbor Towers' Condominium's resilient storm surge barriers and deployable flood walls, the last stop on a walking tour highlighting flood barriers throughout the city | 65-85 E India Row, Boston

6:00 | MassDOT hosts a virtual design public hearing on a project that includes design and construction of roadway and bridge superstructures along Interstate 90 and a bridge over Interstate 90 in Palmer | More Info and Register

6:00 | Department of Conservation and Recreation holds an informational meeting and public hearing on the preparation of Resource Management Plans for seven properties in the Tolland Complex: Becket State Forest, C.M. Gardner State Park, Chester-Blandford State Forest, Granville State Forest, Huntington State Forest, Otis State Forest and Tolland State Forest | Zoom Registration

6:30 | Mayor Wu and MBTA general manager and interim Transportation Secretary Eng present updated design for the Blue Hill Avenue Transportation Action Plan | Holland Tech, 60 Washington St., Dorchester

7:00 | Republican nominee for U.S. Senate John Deaton holds a town hall as part of his "People Over Politics" tour | Kowloon, 948 Broadway, Saugus

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CLANCY CASE LATEST: After a hearing on motions in the murder case against Lindsay Clancy, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz wouldn't say if he plans to retry the Duxbury mom for the deaths of her children, but said his office is doing a "very thorough" review. | Boston Herald

HORSING AROUND: A dispute in Newton centers around whether a miniature horse classifies as a large animal. An Auburndale resident plans to file a court appeal after the city used that reason to deny her request to keep the pet horse, Clover, in her backyard. | WCVB

UNCOVERED: About 15,000 documented immigrants across New England, including an estimated 7,300 in Massachusetts, will lose full Medicaid coverage Thursday under new federal rules. Advocates see it as a precursor to other waves of health insurance losses in 2027 as other restrictions kick in. | Boston Globe

IN THE LIMELIGHT: Ashfield's Double Edge Theatre, the only Franklin County venue among the latest round of recipients in the state's live theater tax credit program, says the money helped put on an original production, bringing actors from across the globe to a rural community. | Greenfield Recorder

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