- 259comments
- 40comments
- 118comments
- 123comments
- 25comments
- 40comments
- 184comments
- 10comments
- 68comments
- 14comments
- 35comments
- 7comments
- 7comments
- 103comments
- 26comments
- 9comments
- 259comments
- 253comments
- —discuss
- 29comments
- 40comments
- 308comments
- 1comments
- 176comments
- 20comments
- 10comments
- —discuss
- 45comments
- 9comments
- 85comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Frum
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/david-frum-douglas-murray-sec...
https://archive.is/20260819205811/https://www.theatlantic.co...
It's a glorification of centrism, the Democratic party's favorite fast track to ruin, and Frum is talking about ideological issues. In my long experience, ideology counts for little with most voters, and the three issues below seem to be paramount.
I suggest that Democrats focus on three issues:
1. Senseless war.
2. Widescale resistance to data centers. (NIMBYISM on a grand scale)
3. Higher Prices, Much higher.
These issues are really important and impactful for a wide cross section of the public, and by the way with progressives.
I’m trying to understand your position here. Resistance to datacenters is like wildly bipartisan popular the other two are inversely so. I assume you’re trying to make a satirical point, but what is it?
Trump ran against war, in fact, outright isolationism, and many on the right, albeit a minority, are sticking with isolationism. As more snafu's like the two Navy failures come to light, perhaps more. Nobody wants endless wars.
And who is in favor of higher prices?
Before there were data centers, these two sank many a presidency.
what GOP voter is in favor of higher prices?
None of them! That was my point. High prices is unpopular, and datacenters are unpopular, so I’m trying to figure out why 1 and 3 are written in the negative and 2 is written in the positive. I’m just confused that’s all.
Progressives have settled on affordability as the rallying cry, which is of course both necessary and effective messaging, so centrist Dems and Republicans have to fall in line or face existential peril.
TLDR "AI is pushing the cost of everything up. AI is not cared for by the majority. Oppose AI and the physical world impact or lose."
(more than a handful of politicians have lost their primary elections due to the AI support; Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, Lee Perry and Boyd Bingham [Box Elder County, Utah commissioners], two members of the Georgia Public Service Commission lost their seats amid concern about data centers’ driving up electricity prices. A Virginia state delegate, Geary Higgins, also lost his job last year after his opponent branded him “Data Center Geary.”)
AI data center outrage is showing up everywhere from ads to elections - https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/20/ai-data-center-election-back... - August 20th, 2026
The rise of DSA is killing off Resistance 1.0 Democrats - https://www.axios.com/2026/08/20/dsa-impeachment-trump-vindm... - August 20th, 2026
Exclusive: GOP issues stark warning to AI companies - https://www.axios.com/2026/08/19/gop-data-center-memo-ai-ele... - August 19th, 2026
Voters Aren’t Waiting for November to Try Ousting Officials Over Data Centers - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/technology/data-centers-v... | https://archive.today/24VSs - August 19th, 2026
Young adults in the U.S. are increasingly wary of AI, concerned it will take jobs - https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/08/18/young-adu... - August 18th, 2026
Data centers take center stage in Wisconsin governor’s race - https://civicmedia.us/news/2026/08/07/data-centers-take-cent... - August 7th, 2026
Data center foes win big in Tuesday’s primaries - https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/05/data-center-foes-wi... - August 5th, 2026
How data centers drove Utah's primaries - https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2026/06/25/data-c... - June 25th, 2026
How opinions and use of AI differ by age - https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/how-opinions... - June 17th, 2026
Americans Oppose AI Data Centers in Their Area - https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-ce... - May 13th, 2026
My hypothesis on this whole thing is that the post war political consensus that defined left and right and political success through ideology is coming to a close. It’s not dead yet, millions of boomers are still voting.
But politics is about emotion, and the center left vs far left built around socialism as a boogeyman - that emotion was based specifically on a Cold War politics where communism is a specific external enemy.
And socialism doesn’t have to become popular for the emotional salience of “communist” as an attack, that sunk many a candidate in the Reagan era to stop being impactful.
And so I think one of the reasons that Mamdani’s approval is rising, is because competence, and outcomes will have greater salience than ideology.
This, not David Frums centrism argument explains the move from sanders to trump and I think will continue to surprise old school political consultants.
Is the insurgent left those dementia patients that screamed “blue no matter who” during the last presidential election where there was a sudden “replacement” candidate no one really cared for, but were willing to endorse republicans after someone said mean thing about their favorite violent dessert tribe?