Ro Khanna@RoKhanna
Electability is the buzzword at Democratic conventions across our nation.
I understand why some Democrats are tempted to play it safe. Many see Republican victories in 2026 and 2028 as an existential threat and think the answer is to nominate the safest possible candidates.
But America is not facing an ordinary moment. We have levels of wealth concentration not seen since the first Gilded Age. Millions of young people cannot afford a home, childcare, healthcare, or college. Voting rights and women’s rights are being rolled back. Black and Latino communities, rural America, and factory towns have been excluded from the wealth generation of the modern economy.
The answer to a crisis of this scale is not caution. It is a bold vision equal to the moment.
We cannot simply be against Trumpism and go back to a status quo that tore this nation apart. We need a new economic patriotism that creates good jobs in every ZIP code, rebuilds American industry, delivers Medicare for All, provides childcare $10 day, makes public college tuition-free, creates 1,000 new trade schools and technical institutes, guarantees homeownership for every American who works hard by age 35, and ensures that the gains from AI and technological progress are shared by working and middle-class Americans.
We need to end foreign wars, reject gun boat militarism abroad, and stop providing aid to governments that violate human rights.
And yes, I believe America is strongest when it celebrates being a nation of immigrants. The future of this country is not one group against another or running away from our diversity. It is Americans of every race, faith, and background united around the simple idea that everyone who works hard deserves economic security, dignity, and a chance to succeed. That was Frederick Douglass’s prophecy of a Composite Nation in 1869.
If Democrats want to defeat Trumpism, we cannot simply run safe, focus-group-crafted politicians who try to substitute demographic or biographical connection for a real policy vision. We cannot recycle candidates who will never be seen as leaders for true change.
We have to offer something fresh, something bigger than fear and insults. We have to offer a vision of shared prosperity. We have to give people a reason to believe that the future can be better than the past.
That is the path that Franklin Roosevelt, a leader who governed from a wheelchair after polio, showed us. It is the path John Kennedy showed us as the first Catholic president. It is the path Barack Obama showed us as a trailblazing African American president. It is the path Bernie Sanders showed us as a Jewish, democratic socialist who transformed our politics.
The great reformers in American history did not win by playing it safe. They were by no means conventional candidates. They won by meeting the challenges of their time with courage equal to the moment.
We are at our best as Democrats when we are not afraid. We are at our best when we are bold.
