Politics & Power Quote by Barney Frank

Frank’s line is a preemptive strike against the easiest critique in American politics: you only complain about the other side because they’re the other side. Instead of pretending he floats above party, he admits the gravitational pull of tribal loyalty and then argues for a higher standard inside it. The real claim isn’t “I’m bipartisan.” It’s “I’m credible.”

The intent is disciplinary. Frank is talking to fellow Democrats, allies, and a media ecosystem that rewards partisan heat. He’s laying out a bargain: if you want your critiques of Republicans to land as principled rather than tactical, you have to demonstrate you’re willing to take friendly fire. Silence, in his framing, isn’t neutrality; it’s a forfeiture. You lose moral capital by hoarding it.

Subtext: attention is a currency, and outrage is cheap when it’s one-directional. Frank is describing how legitimacy gets built in public life. People “pay attention” not because your arguments are correct, but because they’ve seen you incur a cost for consistency. Criticizing your own side is that cost; it functions like a receipt. Without it, every later condemnation reads as just another team chant.

Context matters because Frank, a sharp-elbowed liberal and legislative insider, understood that party discipline can drift into intellectual laziness. His point isn’t that Democrats and Republicans are equally bad. It’s that accountability has to be demonstrably non-selective if you want to claim the mantle of seriousness. In an era of performative outrage, he’s insisting on the unglamorous work of earning trust.