In the News

Congressman Ro Khanna has a message for the winners of Silicon Valley: You have a civic duty to help the entire country.

Talking with Recode's Kara Swisher and Tony Romm on the latest episode of Recode Decode, Rep. Khanna said techies should "answer the call to service" and help figure out how technology can uplift all Americans, not just the ones in the Bay Area. His constituency includes the headquarters of some of the world's most influential tech companies, including Apple, Intel, Yahoo and eBay.

How can Democrats best reply to the Trump agenda?

Since the rise of the tea party, the Democratic response that seems to have resonated most with voters has been to promise more stuff to more people.

You want to slow the growth of Social Security benefits for the upper income? We'll increase Social Security. For everybody.

You want to abolish Obamacare? We will push Medicare for all.

Are people having trouble paying off their student loans? We will make college free — for everyone, regardless of income.

The Trump Administration may not believe that automation threatens today's American workforce, but try telling that to a travel agent or a truck driver or a factory worker or an accountant. One recent study found that for every one robot introduced to the workforce, six related human jobs disappear. But those six humans still need to get by.

For all the important debates happening right now in the United States, the economy remains at the top of people's minds. In a recent CNN/ORC poll, respondents listed it as the top issue facing the country.

Manik Suri is the archetypical overachiever from an Indian American family. The 34-year-old runs a start-up in Silicon Valley. He speaks four languages. He's got two Ivy League degrees.

And yet, when the windows at an Indian restaurant near his house were shot out in late February, along with those of an Eritrean place nearby, he felt shaken. "We catered my wife's sister's wedding in that restaurant," he said. "The whole conception of the Indian community as a model minority—we benefitted from that perception." This is "the first time I've ever felt, ‘Wow, it doesn't matter.'"

President Donald Trump won this state by a landslide after promising to reopen Appalachia's coal mines and put its miners back to work. But here, along the banks of Paint Creek in eastern Kentucky's legendary coal fields, some displaced workers are pinning their hopes instead on Silicon Valley.

In the wake of the Republican failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Friday, leading figures in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party are rallying behind a single-payer health insurance and a raft of other bold reforms.

These lawmakers and grassroots leaders have long believed that the problems plaguing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, are rooted in the original health care law's attempt to accommodate, rather than gradually replace, the private, for-profit health insurance system.

The disconnect between Silicon Valley and the American heartland was one of the issues highlighted by Donald Trump's surprise victory, which was largely attributed to working-class voters who felt ignored by business elites and left behind by the forces of globalization. After all, when you're a 50-year-old in Kentucky who was just laid off at the coal mine, the tech giants aren't likely to help you find a new job, and the digital economy must not seem like it's improving your life beyond offering you expensive new smartphones.