Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) acknowledged that President Trump’s 2016 election served as a “wake-up call” that rural Americans have been left out of the economic successes stemming from industries like tech.
“There’s an awareness that not a lot of rural America has participated in the economic success,” Khanna told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti.
“I think his election highlighted it,” he added. “I think it was a wake-up call for a lot of people around the country, including in Silicon Valley.”
Silicon Valley makes up a large portion of Khanna’s district.
However, tensions have emerged between progressives like 2020 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Silicon Valley corporations like Facebook.
Last week, Sanders joined fellow progressive and 2020 primary opponent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in calling for Facebook to break up amid anti-trust concerns.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has also called for the social media giant to break up.
“This idea that 6,000 millionaires are created in my district as Uber goes public. Even people who were administrative assistants may have become millionaires depending on when they joined Uber,” Khanna said.
“In the rest of the country are not making $15 dollars [an hour] and aren’t being able to have a standard of living to be apart of the middle class, and are often driving Ubers because they face deindustrialization of their communities or the loss of jobs,” he continued.
“There’s a stark divide in this country, and Bernie Sanders speaks to that with moral clarity,” he said. “Now, they may have different solutions in how they would get job creation in places left behind and that we debate.”
— Julia Manchester
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