Marshall here. Welcome back to the realignment. Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. Today's

episode features a return appearance by Representative Rokana. In this conversation, we discuss

the future for the Democratic Party, the implications of Donald Trump's victory over Kamala Harris last week,

and of course his longstanding focus on economic patriotism, technology, and other areas of

direct relevance to his place as Silicon Valley's congressman.

Hope you all enjoy the conversation and a huge thank you to the foundation for American Innovation

of supporting the work of this podcast.

Representative Rokana, welcome back to The Realignment.

Thank you. I really enjoyed my last conversation and appreciate you having you back on.

Yeah, it's great chatting with someone like you after the

actual election, because instead of just predicting or kind of forecasting, we can actually

respond to the actual dynamics of what actually happens. So let's just start here. I'm in a weird

place because I predicted Kamala Harris was going to win. She didn't end up winning, but the realignment

framework ended up still applying. So the question for you then would be, as a Democrat,

thinking of a political realignment, working class voters being up for grabs, de-racialization

of American politics, et cetera. What's it like to live in this current moment?

Well, look, I'm still hopeful.

I thought Harris would win, too. But let me put one thing in perspective and then what we need to go forward. I grew up. I was born in Philadelphia. I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,

in the 1980s. And if you had told me in

the 1980s that we would have an African American, Indian American woman who would become the

Democratic nominee and get 48% of the vote in Pennsylvania, I would have told you you're not,

you're crazy. No one would get over 30%. So we have made tremendous progress. Now, why were we not able to get over the finish line? We have to recognize that a large slice of Americans, not just working class Americans, a large slice of Americans are economically struggling because in a modern economy, they feel

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