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.
Barney FrankThis bill is the legislative equivalent of crack. It yields a short-term high but does long-term damage to the system and it's expensive to boot.
Barney FrankI have this fear that one day there's going to be a fire in the Senate and there are only going to be 57 senators there and theyโll all die because they won't have 60 votes to allow themselves to leave the building.
Barney Frank