Magnus
Diamond Member
- Jun 22, 2020
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For Ro Khanna, the progressive Democrat and third-term House member who represents the district singularly synonymous in the country with big money and high tech, this was the first stop of a four-day, three-state tour through the more downcast Midwest, meeting with local officials, factory workers and union retirees in perennially depressed one-time auto-industry strongholds.
These, of course, are not new ideas. But the combination of the messenger and the locale was unusual. In August, when most members of Congress are in their respective districts or perhaps off elsewhere to raise funds, Khanna was here — not only not at home but in a red part of a red state, not asking for their money, and not asking for their votes (at least not yet). Instead, he was here in Indiana, then Wisconsin, then Iowa, sharpening a key plank of his overall political pitch, attempting to rehab his party’s reputation in an area of the country that’s become increasingly inhospitable, and also very obviously laying seed for his own evident presidential ambitions. And maybe the most surprising part of this surprising scene? It appeared to be working.
Fred Centner thought former president Donald Trump had had “a lot of good ideas.” The former president also, unfortunately, was “an idiot,” Centner said. He wishes he would just go away. Before this visit from Khanna, he had looked him up, pegging him as a “typical liberal.” The way Khanna was talking, though, sounded to Centner a lot like … Trump.
Make more stuff here? “That’s what Trump wanted,” he said over the noise of the heavy machinery. Buy American? “It’s a Trump concept. It’s a Republican concept,” he said. “So, to hear a Democrat coming out and saying, ‘Hey, we want the same things’ … it’s good to hear.”
After the people clapped, I went to the rear of the room to talk to a woman wearing a Sanders shirt. “I don’t know why he’s here,” Jessika Feltz, the vice chair of the county party, said of Khanna, “but I like that he’s here.”
I wondered if she would vote for Khanna for president.
“Hundred percent,” she said.
“Over Biden?” I asked.
“Hundred percent.”
www.politico.com
These, of course, are not new ideas. But the combination of the messenger and the locale was unusual. In August, when most members of Congress are in their respective districts or perhaps off elsewhere to raise funds, Khanna was here — not only not at home but in a red part of a red state, not asking for their money, and not asking for their votes (at least not yet). Instead, he was here in Indiana, then Wisconsin, then Iowa, sharpening a key plank of his overall political pitch, attempting to rehab his party’s reputation in an area of the country that’s become increasingly inhospitable, and also very obviously laying seed for his own evident presidential ambitions. And maybe the most surprising part of this surprising scene? It appeared to be working.
Fred Centner thought former president Donald Trump had had “a lot of good ideas.” The former president also, unfortunately, was “an idiot,” Centner said. He wishes he would just go away. Before this visit from Khanna, he had looked him up, pegging him as a “typical liberal.” The way Khanna was talking, though, sounded to Centner a lot like … Trump.
Make more stuff here? “That’s what Trump wanted,” he said over the noise of the heavy machinery. Buy American? “It’s a Trump concept. It’s a Republican concept,” he said. “So, to hear a Democrat coming out and saying, ‘Hey, we want the same things’ … it’s good to hear.”
After the people clapped, I went to the rear of the room to talk to a woman wearing a Sanders shirt. “I don’t know why he’s here,” Jessika Feltz, the vice chair of the county party, said of Khanna, “but I like that he’s here.”
I wondered if she would vote for Khanna for president.
“Hundred percent,” she said.
“Over Biden?” I asked.
“Hundred percent.”
Ro Khanna’s Apology Tour. And Why Trump Voters Love It.
The congressman from Silicon Valley is pressure-testing a message that he thinks could save the Democratic party in the industrial Midwest.
www.politico.com
Democrats have no core beliefs, they are political chameleons just like their leader Biden. They are all on video flip flopping on every major issue from Biden right on down the line.
