Retired congressman and trailblazer Barney Frank is missed by many liberals. But Frank — a first-rate financial mind and agitator — is still sharing from the trove of insider knowledge he built during his 32 years on Capitol Hill. Donald Trump and the GOP congress may be busy disemboweling Frank’s signature Dodd-Frank Act (meant to prevent another financial crisis), but Frank is still giving lessons on how citizens can produce their own impact.
Writing in Mic, Frank divulged the secrets to pressuring elected officials to reconsider legislative positions. The key takeaway from Frank is this: location, location, location. Politicians, Frank points out, don’t care about you if you can’t vote them out. Your hopes of influencing a lawmaker outside your district is absolute zero, the pragmatic Franks reveals. Signing petitions means almost zero, too. Frank advises that citizens know their sphere of influence and approach it directly: “You can only have an impact on legislators for or against whom you will have a chance to vote the next time they run.”
