Artificial intelligence (AI) is not some distant experiment reserved for Silicon Valley giants. It already reshapes Main Street.
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Far from ushering in Armageddon, AI gives small business owners the power to cut costs, serve customers better, and compete against anyone in the world.
Republicans who recoil from this reality are handing the future to Beijing. They also embolden a Democrat party now captured by hard-left forces that despise the very foundations of this country.
Roger Williams, congressional Republican from Texas, is chairman of the House Committee on Small Business. He recently convened a hearing titled “AI on Main Street” that laid out the plain facts.
Nearly three-quarters of small enterprises already use some form of AI. Generative tools help retailers source products more cheaply, restaurants manage inventory, and service businesses handle routine work so owners can focus on growth. A skincare company in California’s Coachella Valley used these tools to find lower-cost suppliers. It avoided passing higher prices to customers.
AI adoption is strong among tech and entertainment companies, yet even half of traditional brick-and-mortar operations have begun to apply the technology. The holdouts are not rejecting the idea out of principle. Many simply lack trained workers, face regulatory confusion, or still do not understand how AI tools fit their daily operations.
Clear national rules on data privacy and targeted training programs, such as those advanced by US House Republicans, are essential. After all, every Main Street proprietorship deserves to move forward with confidence.
President Donald J. Trump understands this. He has directed federal agencies to accelerate approvals for large AI data centers and open suitable federal land. He strips away layers of unnecessary review, while ensuring that ordinary households and small firms do not subsidize the electricity needed for new AI infrastructure.
Large operators must pay the full cost of added power generation. More than 200 utilities, developers, and states have already joined a Ratepayer Protection Pledge. It covers 80 percent of the power delivered to American homes and businesses.
Trump’s broader AI Action Plan rests on three straightforward pillars.
The first is removing barriers to innovation. The second entails expanding the physical capacity of data centers and chip plants, while training the workforce that builds them. The third means exporting and securing American technology packages to trusted global partners.
Energy capacity in the United States has barely grown since the 1970s, while China has raced ahead. Only a determined “build” approach closes that gap and keeps the decisive economic and military advantages on this side of the Pacific.
Yet public resistance has grown loud.
Protests have targeted hundreds of proposed AI data center sites. Local bans and freezes have appeared in dozens of jurisdictions. Polls show majorities in both major parties favor at least a temporary nationwide pause. The stated concerns are water use, noise, traffic, and fear of higher bills. These are real enough for some communities.
Deeper still is anxiety that AI will replace human jobs. Young workers in highly exposed occupations have already seen employment decline. Nearly two-thirds of Americans expect fewer jobs over the next two decades. That fear is understandable. It is also fatal if it becomes national policy.
Global investment in AI more than doubled in a single year. Private capital poured into the sector, with generative tools leading the surge. American private investment dwarfs China’s by a factor of more than 20. The economic value American users already extract from AI has climbed sharply. The technology is not optional. It will expand whether Americans like it or not.
The only question is whether the data centers and the rules that govern them will fly the American flag or the Chinese one.
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Some of the most organized opposition carries a darker pedigree. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a Marxist-Leninist group with documented ties to China. These come through leadership overlap and fiscal networking. The PSL has helped organize campaigns that delayed or blocked more than $20 billion in proposed AI investment across multiple states. Under federal law, the PSL need not disclose its issue-advocacy donors.
While the Chinese communist party (CCP) builds its own AI capacity without hesitation, it benefits when Americans choke off their own. That same party has sunk deep roots into American institutions that shape future leaders.
A joint investigation by House committees revealed that Harvard created a special nonprofit vehicle to accept foreign money when the university itself could not. Its public-health school hosted sessions that appear to have included participants from a Chinese paramilitary force sanctioned for involvement in the genocide of Uyghurs. Harvard officials worried first about damaging relations with Beijing rather than about American law or human rights.
University researchers have co-authored papers with entities tied to China’s defense apparatus on dual-use technologies. One former professor who accepted Chinese talent-recruitment funds later rebuilt his lab in China. He now works on brain-computer interfaces with clear military applications.
The pattern is consistent: Chinese money flows in, standards erode, and sensitive research flows out.
The influence does not stop at Harvard Yard. Community organizations linked to the CCP’s United Front Work Department have directed the overwhelming majority of their political donations to Democrats for decades. In New York alone, the imbalance has been stark. Executives tied to firms under CCP influence have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the blue team in this midterm cycle alone.
In California, individuals and employees of companies flagged for close collaboration with the Chinese military have poured substantial sums into the campaign accounts of leading Democrats. These blue “public servants” hold office at every level of government. Senior staff, at businesses the Pentagon believes are intertwined with China’s military, have directed millions of dollars to blue coffers since 2020.
The Chinese Communist Party cultivates influence where resistance becomes weakest. The Democrat party is today’s marshmallow target.
Hard-left forces trafficking in third-worldism, racial grievance, and open hostility to Western civilization now define the blue team. Anti-Western, anti-white, and antisemitic attitudes, dressed up as “democratic socialism,” surge through its ranks. Avowed communists are no longer obscure. They increasingly set the tone.
Should Democrats capture the House, the Senate, or both this November, they will move aggressively to cripple the Trump administration. Investigations that expose Chinese influence will be shut down. Efforts to restrict Beijing’s reach will be slowed or blocked. Simultaneously, Democrats will create every possible obstacle for Republican presidential contenders as the 2028 cycle starts.
The result will be paralysis where resolve is required and surrender where strength is essential.
Republican voters who stay home this November choose to place America last. The progress already made in exposing Chinese penetration of elite institutions, and in advancing American AI leadership, deserves protection. The country should continue to be led with strength. Not handed over to forces of race-communist, democratic-socialist carnage.
Artificial intelligence is the future for small businesses and for the nation. Data centers are the foundation of that future. President Trump is right to endorse them. Anyone who stands in the way, whether from misplaced fear or deliberate sabotage, serves Beijing’s interest and weakens the United States. The choice in November is unmistakable.
Show up and vote to defend America herself.
Dr. Joseph Ford Cotto is the creator, host, and producer of News Sight, delivering sharp insights on the key events that shape our lives. He publishes Dr. Cotto’s Digest, sharing how business and the economy really impact us all. During the 2024 presidential race, he developed the Five-Point Forecast, which accurately predicted Donald Trump’s national victory and correctly called every swing state. Cotto holds a doctorate in business administration and is a Lean Six Sigma Certified Black Belt.
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