At least he's open about it now: His main role is as an (unpaid?) advisor to the Democratic Party. I mean, this is all part of the dance, right? Criticisms of and exhortations to the Dems from the left only reinforce the centrality of the party's role in politics. Learning to talk about class again means that the Dems have a pro-working-class essence they have lamentably strayed from, and the job of critical intellectuals is to remind them of this state of natural purity. Etc.
It's interesting that Frank's prescription for Dems is that they must "talk" about class, apparently without any actual political program. The Reps have talked a great game for the last 30 years and now the Dems must learn to talk a better game. Unstated is the assumption that the gullible dunderheads in the American working class are easily seduced by spin, pr, and rhetoric, so that fancy talk and cultural distractions are all that's needed to woo them.