Ro Khanna and the Politics of “Weak and Woke”

Ro Khanna is quickly becoming one of the most recognizable Democrats in the United States. The California congressman is a regular on cable news, a favorite on the podcast circuit, and fluent in the languages of Silicon Valley, industrial policy, and progressive idealism. Among political commentators, he’s often cast as the party’s future: a figure who can bridge divides, articulate an optimistic economic vision, and spar with conservative interlocutors without losing his composure.

Yet for all of Khanna’s surface appeal, his limitations as a political disruptor were on display last week during a Fox News exchange with Lawrence Jones. Asked whether the Democratic Party had become too “woke,” too “non-masculine,” and too aloof from everyday concerns, Khanna denied the charges, instead launching into a reverie about the party’s New Deal legacy and commitment to Medicare and Medicaid. In the process, he neatly sidestepped what voters find most alienating about the modern Left.