Ro Khanna Slams Democratic Party's 'Win by Default' Strategy: Is That All We've Got?

Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna has publicly taken his own party to task, calling out what he sees as a lack of vision and a reliance on simply waiting for the opposition to fail. Ouch!

Khanna appeared on "The Young Turks" on Monday, discussing the Democratic strategy for engaging with voters who previously supported President Donald Trump. The conversation quickly turned to whether the Democratic Party has any proactive plans to counter the Trump administration's policies.

According to Khanna, the party's current approach seems to be banking on Trump's agenda collapsing under its own weight, with the hope of regaining control of Congress as a result.

"I think their plan is the plan that Democrats have gone through time and again, which is to point out, which is true, that a lot of these cuts are going to deeply hurt people, the Medicaid cuts, the cuts in people who keep our planes safe and prevent bird flu and keep our nuclear secrets safe, fund cancer research," Khanna stated. "Here’s my problem with that. I actually think it’ll work for 2026… fine, so we get back the House, maybe we even win the presidency by default. What is our vision?"

Khanna didn't hold back, questioning the long-term effectiveness of this strategy: "Is our vision to just to continue to try to win by default because they go too far and then not have a governing majority in the House or the Senate where we actually are able to address the legitimate anger of working-class Americans of all races? Or are we going to try to do something meaningful with the power we will be handed? And that to me is the failure of leadership in the Democratic Party. We are just being tactical. We’re hoping that they self-destruct."

He emphasized the need for a concrete vision, echoing sentiments from Bernie Sanders, to address inequality and acknowledge the legitimate grievances of many Trump voters.

Khanna's willingness to work across party lines has been evident, such as his December meeting with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to explore ways to cut federal spending while maintaining essential government functions. Now that's what I call bipartisan!

"Well, we’ve talked about that. And I made the case to him that Tesla and SpaceX have been funded by the Obama government and let’s have a role for government. But let’s look at what you did with Space X. Why can’t we do that with other parts of the five primes to reduce costs? I think when it comes to defense, getting better defense for value and cutting costs, there can be huge bipartisan cooperation," Khanna said on ABC’s "This Week."