This is Part 2 of a two-part series examining the current affairs debate surrounding AI data centers. Part 1 examined the case that these facilities function as genuine strategic national assets. Part 2 examines the rapidly intensifying data center opposition movement sweeping the country, the specific harms driving it, and the growing legal and political push to hold operators directly liable.

A Movement That Crossed a Threshold in 2026

Part 1 of this series took seriously the argument that AI data centers function as genuine strategic infrastructure. That argument has not disappeared. But it now sits alongside a second, equally well-documented reality that no honest account of this current affairs debate can minimize. Data center opposition has become, in the words of one recent analysis, the most bipartisan issue since beer.