Every so often in American politics, a potent issue arises that many voters feel very strongly about, but which neither major political party is willing to tackle (or even address). Call them "political orphan issues," since they have essentially been abandoned by both parties, for whatever reason.

Gay marriage was such an issue, a while back, since while Democrats were a lot more sympathetic to gay people in committed relationships than Republicans, very few Democrats were actually willing to stand up and champion full marriage equality for all until after the Supreme Court stepped in and decided the issue. Then it became politically safer to support gay marriage, but this was nothing more than volunteering for a fight that had already been won -- too little, too late, in other words. There are other political orphan issues from the past few decades that spring to mind, but the one that is currently growing like wildfire in the American electorate is opposing the so-far-unchecked explosion of data center construction.

This is currently a truly nonpartisan issue -- that's a very important thing to say, right up front. People opposed to data centers being built in their towns can be full-on MAGA Trump supporters or Democratic Socialists -- ideological labels don't matter on this issue, because the complaints people have about data centers are a lot more personal and immediate than national politics. It could be seen as a variation of the "NIMBY" reaction ("not in my back yard"), but as I said, the labels don't really matter much. What does matter is the white-hot rage people feel, from both the left and the right.

Tucked away in an interesting article that was written before this Tuesday's Michigan primaries happened was the story of the campaign of one of the progressives who wound up winning his Democratic nomination fight. Will Lawrence beat two establishment Democrats this week (who wound up splitting the vote enough that Lawrence was able to beat both of them) for a House race in Michigan. Here's how HuffPost reported on his campaign, just before the election was held (in a story that also detailed the races of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who won his primary for the Senate in Michigan, and Francesca Hong, who is running for governor in next week's primary in Wisconsin):

[Will] Lawrence's candidacy has caused the most consternation. A co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, he managed to sneak up on Washington, D.C., operatives who were focused on the competition between former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.

A focus on stopping data centers, a point of emphasis shared by [Francesca] Hong and [Dr. Abdul] El-Sayed, helped create runaway momentum for Lawrence's candidacy. His first campaign ad featured a homeowner who feared a data center built in their town would destroy their property values.

"People are fearful that their towns will be destroyed by these hyperscale data centers," Lawrence told HuffPost in a phone interview on Friday. "I mean, it is an existential threat for the people who are on the front lines, and people across the district see that we have corporate-funded Democrats and corporate-funded Republicans who are united in rolling out the red carpet for these Silicon Valley billionaires to decide the future of our communities."

Lawrence and Hong have both said their opposition to the facilities has won them the support of Trump supporters who oppose the projects, arguing it shows how economic populist issues taken up by the left can win over working-class voters who have backed Republicans in recent years.

This issue is ripe for one of the major political parties to jump on with both feet. However, neither has and (sadly) neither seems very likely to openly oppose the data center construction boom. Data centers power artificial intelligence, and A.I. is currently what is propping up the American economy. Many Wall Street types fear that we are now in an "A.I. bubble," which could burst and send us crashing into a recession. But for the time being, there are oceans of money out there floating around, and a lot of it is being spent on politics. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are willing to walk away from this river of campaign cash, which is why the issue is such a political orphan.

But that doesn't stop individual politicians from jumping on the opportunity and riding it to victory at the ballot box. Because it is an incredibly potent issue which sparks intense outrage in people whose lives either have been or are about to be affected by a data center suddenly appearing close to their homes.

Here are the main complaints of the people opposed to data center construction near them:

• Ugliness -- Huge industrial buildings popping up in what had been residential areas. Instead of your back yard looking over a field, all of a sudden a few hundred feet away is a huge ugly building that blocks any other view.
• Noise -- The computers in data centers run silently. But they generate an enormous amount of heat, which requires massive cooling systems to bleed off. Most of these cooling systems are very loud. So not only is there a gigantic ugly building next door to your house, it puts out so much noise that you can't hear yourself think, even inside your own home.
• Water use -- The cooling systems for these data centers currently use an enormous amount of clean water -- far more than residential areas. This either means higher water bills for everyone in town, or it means that reservoirs run dry -- which is a critical issue in states in the West. Building data centers in desert areas with very limited water supplies is a pretty short-sighted thing to do, to put it mildly.
• Electricity use -- The computers and the cooling systems eat a gargantuan amount of electricity. One data center can require as much power as a small city (or even a medium-sized city, for the biggest ones). In the initial stages of the data center boom, this meant putting such a strain on the electrical-generating system that everyone's power bills skyrocketed. This is still happening, but now data centers are realizing that they essentially have to build their own power plants so they don't affect everyone else's usage or bills, but this isn't exactly a perfect solution -- building a ton of new power plants just increases pollution for locals.
• Sneakiness -- Data centers are planned and approved in the dead of night, in many places. The companies contact the local government, lock them into non-disclosure agreements, and get them to offer up massive tax breaks by promising wealth and jobs for all. By the time the local residents learn of these plans, they are often a done deal that cannot be stopped or reversed. This leaves a very bad taste in voters' mouths, obviously.
• Overruling localities -- In some states, the corporations behind the data center boom have convinced the state government to pass laws making it absolutely impossible for towns and cities to pass their own zoning laws to keep data centers out. This heavy-handedness just adds to the feeling that voters have absolutely zero say in the decision to allow data centers to be built.
• Few jobs created -- A data center does provide some construction work in the initial phases. But after the whole thing is built and wired, these centers provide very few actual long-term jobs (good-paying or not). The computers run by themselves, and don't need much in the way of maintenance or control by anyone on-site. So there isn't even much of a local boost to the economy from hiring lots of people from that town.
• Falling property values -- I saved the biggest one for last. A lot of these other issues negatively impact people's quality of life, but the biggest hit is economic. If you own a wonderful house with a really nice view, it is worth a certain amount of money (should you decide to sell it at any point). But when a data center moves in next door, far fewer people are going to want to buy that house, and the ones who do will not be willing to pay what you thought it was worth. And that's putting it mildly, since building wealth through your home's equity is a crucial part of millions of American families' economic situation. When your home's value starts losing money, it has a profound effect on your family's finances.

These are all very valid concerns. Nobody right now is eager for a data center to be built next door to them. And people feel absolutely powerless in the fight against them. Their local politicians have either been bought and paid for, or are locked into agreements where they can't even talk about what is going on behind the scenes. State politicians aren't much help either, at least in the states where the legislature is passing laws removing zoning decisions from local governments. And very few national politicians are championing the fight against data centers, because of all that lovely campaign cash that is flowing into their pockets from the A.I. boom.

As you can easily see, absolutely none of this is partisan in any way. This isn't about political ideology, it is about powerlessness in the face of a booming industry that is running roughshod over any attempts to rein it in. It is a populist issue, but there are politicians who claim to be populists from both the left and right.

The issue is, however, a potent one -- and one that will only grow in importance as more and more data centers are planned. Fighting back against them doesn't have to mean calling for a complete moratorium on their construction, but instead addressing each and every one of the issues on that list. Zoning laws should not allow such behemoths to exist so close to residential areas -- that's a critical piece of the puzzle right there, since confining them to areas that have already been zoned for heavy industry would completely solve a number of those problems. The data center industry has got to be forced to come up with much better solutions for the cooling problem as well -- solutions that don't use massive amounts of clean water (perhaps recycling a finite amount of water could work?) and mitigate all impacts on local electrical power companies, so that people's power and water bills don't go through the roof. Sunshine laws could be passed which require public comment (and perhaps even public approval) and all the negotiations for data center zoning and construction to be conducted right out in the open, with no non-disclosure agreements or other ways to cut deals in the dark.

If the Democratic Party were smart, they would get together and come up with some sort of a "bill of rights" for homeowners and other people whose lives will be seriously impacted by new data center construction. They would swear to pass the whole thing into federal law, to protect all Americans everywhere (and preclude deals made by individual states which strip the power of local residents from having a say in what happens in their town). Right now, the movement to pass at least temporary moratoriums on data center construction seems to be slowly gaining steam, but Democrats should think more long-term and come up with some real solutions that prevent the biggest problems data centers have already caused.

This is a hot issue, even if it does fly under the radar of most people (the ones whose lives aren't currently being impacted by it). It generates such strong political feelings that it transcends party lines -- in a way that few other hot political issues right now do. This means there are a whole lot of voters out there who might be convinced to vote for one party or the other just on the data center issue alone.

It is a golden opportunity for Democrats. But so far, only a few of them have realized its potency and the level of anger it causes among voters impacted by it. Smart Democrats should study the campaign that Will Lawrence has been running, and jump on this particular bandwagon themselves. Orphan issues can wind up being fully adopted by a political party (it has happened before), and this one seems ripe for Democrats to embrace.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant