Can Rep. Ro Khanna child of the Philly ‘burbs rescue rural America, with tech? | Will Bunch – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Its Groundhog Day! OK, technically this uniquely American holiday is observed tomorrow the day when Punxsutawney Phil grabs the groundhog spotlight back from TVs annoying lottery hawker, Gus. But with COVID-19, Donald Trumps non-stop blather, and an endlessly frigid winter, Im feel like Im hearing Sonny and Chers I Got You, Babe on the clock radio every day at 6 a.m. How about you?

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Referring to the vast rural and industrial American Heartland as flyover country has become politically incorrect reeking of coastal elite condescension yet the phrase aptly describes the life journey of Philadelphia-area native Ro Khanna.

Raised by his Indian immigrant parents in suburban Bucks County, the Council Rock High School grad got his precocious teen political letters published in the Courier Times before flying west as a young man to make a career in Silicon Valley as a lawyer. Then, he flew back over Middle America for Washington when his Northern California district sent the progressive Democrat to Congress in 2016, where he still serves.

Khanna, a 2020 presidential campaign adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, is arguably the last member of Congress youd expect to become an advocate for the economic revival of the rust-bitten Midwest or the rural South. But he experienced a lightbulb moment when he joined a GOP colleague on a fact-finding trip to the rolling hills of Kentucky during his first term. He saw how the giants of Big Tech many of them his constituents or campaign donors back in Silicon Valley could power job growth in Americas forgotten counties. And this sparked an even bigger idea about how rural and Rust Belt development could save democracy.

Khanna has turned his Big Idea into a book Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work For All of Us, officially out today that seeks to flip todays big debates the growing power of tech giants like Amazon or Meta/Facebook and address the political resentment held by rural voters who feel disrespected by coastal elites. Speaking to me Monday by phone from New York where he was about to tape Late Night With Stephen Colbert, this congressman for one of Americas most affluent and educated districts in America, explained his ideas for growth in the regions where access to learning and wealth have lagged.

READ MORE: From Council Rock to Congress: Philly-born Ro Khanna is saving U.S. foreign policy from itself | Will Bunch

Khanna explained that most Americans crave what he calls pride of place. Its what he felt in his close-knit and striving middle-class neighborhood growing up in Holland, Pa. but has been robbed from communities with shuttered factories, empty church pews, and rising deaths of despair. Its not just lost jobs, Khanna said, talking about the resentment in these counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump in the last two elections. And its not just telling their kids to move to where the jobs are, but that its done in the most condescending and insulting way.

Not surprisingly for Silicon Valleys man in D.C., Khanna calls himself a progressive capitalist, and the path he envisions in Dignity in a Digital Age not only for the stereotypical Trump Country but also for nonwhite blue-collar swaths of the South and Southwest involves a partnership of tech firms, government, and higher ed. That means he supports ideas such as the federal government requiring its tech contractors to guarantee new jobs in rural areas, and colleges and universities inventing new kinds of programs that target todays labor market yet may not require the massive expense of a four-year diploma.

This is not some charade of, Lets turn everybody into a coder, Khanna said, even as his book notes that new technologies and the work-from-home-ethos thats arisen during the long pandemic has made it possible for software engineers to now thrive in places like the Kentucky areas that he visited (which bills itself, only half-jokingly, as Silicon Holler). He sees last months announcement by Intel of a $20 billion investment to build two large silicon plants in central Ohio with 3,000 permanent jobs and 7,000 more in construction as an example of what can be done if tech CEOs take a broader view of economic development.

In writing about Big Techs role in modern America, Khanna dances close to an overheated third rail, at a fraught moment when politicians on all sides talk about breaking up, regulating, or somehow clamping down on these too-powerful platforms. Khanna told me there needs to be more competition and more rights for consumers. But he also thinks a smarter, more egalitarian vision from the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world could draw the internet back to its original dream of connecting communities and peoples best ideas, rather than spreading misinformation and political venom.

For Khanna, the real goal of both a World Wide Web working for citizens and creating good jobs outside of elite coastal enclaves is the same: a renewed sense of community. That, he believes, can in turn can fulfill the deferred U.S. promise of the worlds first true multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy where a child of Indian migrants can thrive, but so can a deep-rooted Kentuckian.

We have to have an aspirational, patriotic vision for America, Khanna said. It cant all be doomer-ish. The question, of course, is whether those bleak views of an ever-deteriorating culture war in which many in so-called Trump Country are well past the point of trusting educated outsiders like Khanna can supersede the once-universal faith in the power of economic development. His new book seems an incredibly timely read. Hopefully its not too late.

Do you want to know even more about Rep. Ro Khanna and his new book, Dignity In a Digital Age? Then I have good news for you: You can participate in a special Inquirer LIVE online forum with Khanna moderated by The Inquirers ace political reporter Jonathan Tamari exactly one week from today, on February 8 at 4:15 p.m. You can register in advance at this link.

Is there another Beatles: Get Back-style documentary out there, hiding in plain sight? Yes and no. In 1968, the Rolling Stones hooked up with legendary filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless) to record for posterity the making of one of their greatest numbers, Sympathy for the Devil. Yet Godard was high on Maoist agitprop in the wake of Frances May 1968 uprisings. The remarkable studio scenes the Stones last with doomed founder Brian Jones are interspersed with some bizarre-yet-banal revolutionary theatre. But if youre a 1960s completist like me, Sympathy for the Devil is still worth the $4.99 rental on Amazon Prime.

Question: Why isnt the media freaking out over Trumps statement last night about overturning the election? Why arent lawmakers? Via Heather Cox Richardson (@HC_Richardson) on Twitter

Answer: Its not every week I get a question from such a luminary Richardson, the Boston College historian and author, writes the uber-popular Letters from an American newsletter. Shes referring to the 45th presidents own news release in which he confessed to asking his veep Mike Pence to overturn the election at the January 6, 2021 certification, which Pence refused to do. Its the latest in a series of overt acts that sure seem criminal in nature whether confessing his role in a January 6 conspiracy, obstructing justice, or trying to intimidate prosecutors that Trump carries out in broad daylight. He seeks to numb journalists or lawmakers into complacency how could it be a crime if he admits it in public? and its worked his entire life. Its past time for our milquetoast Attorney General Merrick Garland to act, and prove our presidents are not above the law.

They say its lonely at the top, but President Biden must have been a tad taken aback last week with the icy welcome he almost received from Pennsylvania Democrats on his infrastructure-plan-boosting trip to Pittsburgh. With the 46th presidents approval numbers taking a big hit over everything from inflation to lingering COVID-19 to general malaise two of the Keystone States best-known Democrats with big 2022 ambitions initially claimed scheduling conflicts prevented them from being seen with Biden. While attorney general and lone Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Josh Shapiro stayed away Friday (although he did release a tweet of shooting a basketball called by retired 76ers voice Marc Zumoff), lieutenant governor and Senate hopeful John Fetterman had an abrupt change of plans. When a major bridge over Pittsburghs Frick Park collapsed, Fetterman raced to the scene in his trademark winter shorts, where he met Biden who also diverted to the scene and exchanged some kind words with POTUS.

READ MORE: If Dems want to save American democracy, they need to do these 4 things ASAP | Will Bunch

And thats what Fetterman should have been doing all along! The reality is that there are two competing narratives about both Biden and the Democratic Party right now. The first embraced not just by the presidents Republican foes but also by much of the mainstream media eager to prove its toughness toward a president not named Trump is the glass half-empty storyline. The glass-half-full saga is the booming job market and overall economy aided by Bidens $1.9 trillion on COVID-19 relief as well as the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the restoration of decency and ethics to the Oval Office after The Former Guy. When fearful, deer-in-the-headlines Dems like Shapiro or pre-bridge-collapse Fetterman make headlines for avoiding Biden, they are confirming the Biden is a failure narrative, and making it likely that they will lose in November in a GOP tidal wave. It may be the dumbest political strategy Ive ever seen.

Something horrible has been unleashed in the American Heartland: a flurry of bills in red-state legislatures around gag orders about what teachers can or cannot say in the classroom, especially on the subjects of race or sexuality. Great books like Maus or The Bluest Eye are getting yanked from library shelves. In my latest Sunday column, I looked at whats behind the new McCarthyism a frenzy of book banning and classroom interference that undermines our kids from learning American historical truths.

Over the weekend, I poured my shock and outrage into the news that Donald Trump has dangerously escalated his rhetoric on the road to a 2024 comeback. In a big rally with his cult members in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday night, Trump first promised pardons for the criminals of the January 6 insurrection and then all but threatened a new civil war if prosecutors indict him for his past crimes. Then he tossed the gasoline of racism onto this fire. History shows that lovers of American democracy must act quickly to contain Trump, before his insurrection is too far gone.

Nothing stops The Inquirers indefatigable foreign affairs columnist, Trudy Rubin. With her passport already stamped everywhere from Iraq to Afghanistan, Trudy left late last week for the only country that matters right now: Ukraine. With her nose for behind-the-scenes policy voices and everyday folks caught in the crossfire sometimes literally Trudys columns (twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize) will offer her readers in Philadelphia insights that others simply wont get. Her curtain-raiser on her Ukraine adventure is a great overview of the crisis. Theres only one way to read every new dispatch from Trudy and from me, for that matter. Subscribe to The Inquirer today.

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Can Rep. Ro Khanna child of the Philly 'burbs rescue rural America, with tech? | Will Bunch - The Philadelphia Inquirer