Oblivious Trump is barreling forward with a vow even Republicans despise
It has been a long time since any one issue crossed partisan boundaries, as easily as swapping lanes, like voter hatred of AI and data centers.
True, there are a few GOP stragglers out there — non-billionaires who simply follow whatever Donald Trump says, even though Trump has so clearly taken an "America-last" stance on the issue and buddied up with his super-rich friends to defend AI and all its horrors.
And yet it appears to be one of the few issues over which his supporters have said "enough!"
No single thing will propel the blue wave in the midterms more than simply the fact that Americans are getting sick of Trump. But this issue will be a close second, while also contributing to the fatigue.
This is as pure a policy argument as one will find. Nothing to do with personalities. Nothing about "boys playing girls' sports," none of that distracting stuff. Data centers are going up everywhere — to the outrage of local communities, the looming fear of Wall Street, the horror of the regular mid-tier businessperson knowing that their job is gone within the next couple of years, even the CEOs of the companies themselves who have uttered tepid "concerns" about the need to slow down.
Democrats certainly get it — this isn't a MENSA test. AI issues present unique dangers unlike any we've ever seen before, similar to climate change, only more immediate. Unlike climate change, a significant number of right-wingers understand this particular danger along with Democrats. And that's where these Red Congress critters find themselves in a heap of trouble.
Indeed, the issue alone may cost them a once-considered fairly safe Senate seat in Ohio.
Axios reported that the Republican National Committee sent a memo to the John Husted campaign that said Democrats had made data centers a centerpiece of the race and “it's working.” The party distributed the warning nationwide for Republicans, but it is Sherrod Brown, the Democratic candidate, who has spent millions plastering Husted's face as the king of Ohio data center expansion. Smartly, the ads tie data centers to tax subsidies and electricity costs. A Fox News poll cited by Axios had Brown ahead by 8 points at the time.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) all find themselves in essentially the same spot — purple districts in which Democratic challengers are blasting airwaves and screens with anti-data center issues pulling them ahead of the Republicans.
The data center issue is the more visceral and acute sub-issue, but jobs and the precarious economy should not be far behind. Of course, AI and Data Centers threaten that precarious economy, too. There's no way to separate AI from nearly anything.
And yet there's absolutely nothing the Republicans running can do about it, not while Donald Trump is being Donald Trump, entirely uncaring about voters, caring very much about his billionaire pals who, while they might be a bit hesitant on AI technical developments, are very much behind development of data centers themselves.
Trump is pushing an enormous national AI/data-center buildout, with federal subsidies leaving local voters with the electricity bills, water consumption, land use and subsidies. It leaves Republican candidates discovering that Trump's national economic project is just venomous with voters. The issue has been so bad that Trump's longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio circulated what's been referenced as a "survival guide" instructing candidates what to say in response.
Though none of us have seen the survival guide, one can bet that "beating China" is a major part of the justification, which makes it stupefying that Trump just literally rolled out the red carpet for the adversary we have to beat — no talks or bilateral agreements to slow down, to keep the need from competing with each other. Of course, "slowing down" might mean hurting the market that Trump needs propped up lest it fall apart.
Meanwhile, anti-AI messaging comes from even higher places and beyond this country. Just today, Pope Leo — who hasn't missed a chance to oppose Trump — warned of the larger AI issue, the one well beyond just data centers, the one about, "are we setting ourselves up to be destroyed?" that little issue, when he noted:
If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a ‘paradise of machines’ invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment and the capacity to acknowledge the moral good.
The single last thing that Donald Trump ever cares about is "ethical discernment" and "moral good." The idea is nearly enough to make you fall down laughing, were the topic not so serious.
And it is serious. For the first time, the vast majority of American voters, red and blue, highly oppose both the buildout and the outcome. Indeed on this one issue, the president who brags that he's so smart has a unique opportunity to likely use language about taking time for ethical discussions and moral good, all while largely ignoring it, but have at least Republicans feeling better about it all.
But he cannot even do that right.
Yet again, it's Leo who is the best American leader, the one who likely would pull Congress aside — "pass some legislation, put the world on a six-month break, it's time for some ethical discernment about the moral good" — and what's sad is that he's certainly not the only leader who would make such a move. Give any Democrat a shot at it, or even some Republicans.
It won't happen. And because of it, the GOP is running right into the blue wave because it has to.
It will be one of many reasons they rightfully lose Congress. If only that were enough.
Jason Miciak is a Raw Story columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, an author, attorney, consultant, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com
