Google data center, Council Bluffs, IA

With control of Congress on the line in the midterms, a wave of bipartisan opposition to AI data centers has become one of the more unexpected developments of the campaign. Rising electricity bills tied to data center growth already helped Democrats flip a Georgia utility regulator’s seat last November, a preview of a fight now spreading into House and Senate races nationwide.

The anger fueling this fight is shared by voters in both parties, and it goes well beyond electricity bills. A poll found 77 percent of Americans are concerned data centers will raise their electric bills, with two-thirds of Democrats and half of Republicans saying they would oppose a data center in their own community. Independents are just as uneasy: a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll found 71 percent would oppose an AI data center in their own community, a higher share than the Republicans polled and close to the Democratic number.

American icon Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton died last week at age 80, after a brief battle with cancer. She was known for her philanthropy in addition to her music and acting. For decades, as one example, she quietly ran a program that mailed free books to children from birth to kindergarten, delivering more than 332 million books.

Her humility showed up in both smaller and larger moments. Parton once entered a Dolly Parton look-alike contest just for fun, without telling anyone who she really was. She piled on extra makeup and bigger hair, and lost to a contestant who judges thought did a better impression of her. And then, when nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dolly only reluctantly accepted, stating, “I just didn’t think that I had done enough in the rock world to be considered… when there were so many great rock artists that are not even in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”

Contrast this with Donald Trump. Despite persistent inflation that is a major issue for voters, Trump repeatedly makes wildly false statements like “the economy’s the greatest economy we’ve ever had by far.” Modesty has never been part of his personality.

Likewise, Trump has drenched the Oval Office in gold trim and gold-plated ornaments, calls this tacky makeover the”best ever” and claims that “foreign leaders freak out when the see the quality and beauty.” Trump also wants to build a 250-foot gold-topped “triumphal arch” in DC, and got his hand-picked National Capital Planning Commission to give it preliminary approval. When asked by a reporter who the monument was for, Trump replied: “Me.”