Beyond Red and Blue: How Non-Partisan Policy Innovation Can Counter Artificial Scarcity and Build Regenerative Local Economies
A Call for Tax-Deductible Donations to Support Policy Leadership at the Broadband Institute Foundation
The Challenge We Face Together
In a recent Georgetown University discussion, Senator Bernie Sanders and Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI,” addressed a room full of students with a sobering question: Will AI be a force for good or will it further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few billionaires?
When Senator Sanders asked the audience if they saw AI as positive for their future, hands went up. When he asked if they were concerned about negative impacts, even more hands rose. Then he shared a striking contrast: when he posed the same question to a working-class audience of 2,500 people in Davenport, Iowa, only two hands went up for the positive. The message was clear—ordinary Americans are deeply concerned about who controls transformative technologies and who benefits from them.
As Dr. Hinton emphasized throughout the discussion, the question isn’t whether AI is inherently good or bad. The question is: who controls it and who benefits from it?
This is precisely the question the Broadband Institute Foundation was created to answer—not with partisan rhetoric, but with practical, community-centered solutions that transcend the Red-Blue divide.
Tax Exempt
A Non-Partisan Approach to Policy Innovation
At the Broadband Institute Foundation (doing business as Community Internet), we are a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit dedicated to one mission: empowering communities to build, own, and benefit from their own digital infrastructure.
We don’t operate in the world of “Red” or “Blue.” We operate in the world of local solutions, community ownership, and regenerative economics. Whether a community is rural or urban, conservative or progressive, tribal or suburban, the needs are universal:
- Affordable, reliable internet access
- Local control over essential infrastructure
- Economic opportunities that stay in the community
- Transparent, participatory governance
- Environmental sustainability
These aren’t partisan issues—they’re human issues. And they require a policy framework that listens deeply, collaborates broadly, and designs solutions that float everyone’s boats.
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Countering Artificial Scarcity with Abundance Thinking
As Senator Sanders pointed out in the Georgetown discussion, we live in the richest country in the history of the world. Yet millions of Americans face:
- Skyrocketing internet and electricity costs
- Job displacement from automation and AI
- Declining access to quality education and healthcare
- Environmental degradation from energy-intensive data centers
- Concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few tech billionaires
This is artificial scarcity—manufactured by systems designed to extract wealth from communities rather than circulate it within them.
Dr. Hinton noted that AI could be transformative in positive ways: better healthcare, personalized education, improved weather prediction, optimized resource use. But he also warned that without the right governance structures, AI will simply make the rich richer and leave working people behind.
The Broadband Institute Foundation offers an alternative model:
Regenerative Local Economies Built on Community-Owned Infrastructure
Instead of allowing large telecom monopolies and Big Tech to extract wealth from communities, we help communities:
- Build solar-powered micro data hubs that reduce energy costs and keep revenue local
- Establish cooperative broadband networks owned and governed by community members
- Create participatory governance structures that enable bottom-up decision-making
- Integrate digital infrastructure with local economic development—connecting affordable housing, libraries, small businesses, and workforce training
- Design systems that are regenerative, not extractive—where every dollar saved and every watt generated stays local
This isn’t utopian thinking. This is practical policy innovation grounded in the same principles that powered rural electrification in the 1930s. When investor-owned utilities wouldn’t bring electricity to rural America, communities organized cooperatives and built it themselves. Today, we face a similar crossroads with digital access.
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Why We Need Your Support: Hiring a Policy Expert to Lead the Way
We have a unique opportunity to turn these principles into action—but we need your help.
We are seeking tax-deductible donations to hire a former intern who recently earned her Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. She brings:
- Deep expertise in participatory governance and community organizing
- Technical knowledge of broadband policy, energy systems, and digital equity
- Experience working with diverse stakeholders—from tribal nations to urban housing authorities to rural cooperatives
- A commitment to non-partisan, solutions-oriented policy development
With your support, she will:
- Design policy frameworks that enable communities to build and own their digital infrastructure
- Facilitate community listening sessions and co-design workshops to ensure solutions reflect local priorities
- Develop educational materials and toolkits for community leaders, nonprofits, and local governments
- Advocate for federal and state policies that support community ownership, renewable energy integration, and digital equity
- Build coalitions across sectors—bringing together housing developers, unions, libraries, tribal councils, and business associations
Her work will directly counter the artificial scarcity promoted by the billionaire class by demonstrating that abundance is possible when communities control their own resources.
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Breaking Down the Silos: A Call for Collaborative Action
One of the most damaging patterns in the nonprofit and advocacy sectors is the culture of competition and siloed thinking.
Too many organizations:
- Focus narrowly on a single issue without seeing the interconnections
- Compete for the same pool of funding rather than collaborating on shared goals
- Spend energy on electoral politics without building the long-term infrastructure for community power
- See other nonprofits as competitors rather than potential partners
This fragmentation weakens all of us.
As Senator Sanders emphasized, the fundamental issue is not whether AI is good or bad—it’s who controls it and who benefits. The same is true for broadband, energy, housing, education, and healthcare. These are interconnected systems, and they require interconnected solutions.
The Broadband Institute Foundation is committed to:
- Convening diverse stakeholders around shared goals
- Building coalitions across issue areas—connecting digital equity advocates with climate justice organizers, housing developers with labor unions, tribal nations with rural cooperatives
- Promoting Commons-Based Peer Production—the model articulated by Harvard’s Yochai Benkler, where communities create value collectively rather than extracting it competitively
- Supporting open-source tools and Creative Commons licensing so that innovations can be shared freely
- Facilitating participatory decision-making that gives everyone a voice in shaping their community’s future
We don’t build moats to keep out competitors. We build bridges to connect collaborators.
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What Your Donation Will Support
Your tax-deductible donation to the Broadband Institute Foundation (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) will directly fund:
- Salary and benefits for a full-time policy expert with a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Michigan
- Community engagement and listening sessions in underserved communities
- Policy research and white paper development on community ownership models, renewable energy integration, and participatory governance
- Educational workshops and toolkits for community leaders and local governments
- Coalition-building and cross-sector collaboration to break down silos and amplify impact
- Pilot projects demonstrating the viability of solar-powered micro data hubs and cooperative broadband networks
The Vision: Energy, Data, and Community in Harmony
Dr. Hinton spoke movingly about the need for AI systems with “maternal instincts”—systems that care more about humans than about themselves. Senator Sanders reminded us that the real struggle is political: creating a government that represents ordinary people, not just billionaires.
At the Broadband Institute Foundation, we believe these visions can converge in practical, community-centered infrastructure projects that:
- Generate clean, local energy through solar-powered micro data hubs
- Provide affordable, reliable internet through community-owned networks
- Enable participatory governance through transparent, bottom-up decision-making tools
- Create local jobs in installation, operations, and management
- Build regenerative economies where wealth circulates locally instead of being extracted
This is how we counter artificial scarcity. This is how we ensure that AI and digital technologies serve the many, not just the few. This is how we build a future where harmony between energy, data, and community is not an abstraction but a lived reality.
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Join Us in Building a Non-Partisan Movement for Community Power
The challenges we face—AI displacement, climate change, digital inequality, concentrated wealth—are too big for any one organization to solve alone. They require collaborative action across sectors, geographies, and ideologies.
The Broadband Institute Foundation is uniquely positioned to lead this work because we operate outside the Red-Blue divide. We listen first, design collaboratively, and build solutions that reflect the priorities of the communities we serve.
But we can’t do it without you.
Your tax-deductible donation will help us hire a talented policy expert who can turn these principles into action. Together, we can:
- Counter the artificial scarcity promoted by the billionaire class
- Build regenerative local economies that float everyone’s boats
- Break down the silos that fragment our movements
- Create a model for non-partisan policy innovation that can scale nationwide
Tax Exempt
How to Donate
Make a tax-deductible donation today:
- Online: opencollective.com/community-internet
- Contact us: communityinter.net/contact
Tax ID: 87-4724219
Conclusion: The Time for Political Revolution is Now
Senator Sanders closed the Georgetown discussion with a simple truth: The real question is a fundamental political question. We need a government that works for all of us, not just big money interests.
Dr. Hinton added: “What I have to say is basically what Bernie said.”
At the Broadband Institute Foundation, we’re not waiting for permission from Washington or Wall Street. We’re working with communities right now to build the infrastructure, governance models, and economic systems that put people first.
Will you join us?
Your donation will help us hire the policy expertise we need to scale this vision. Together, we can prove that non-partisan, community-centered solutions are not only possible—they’re the only path forward.
Donate today. Build tomorrow. Transform the digital divide into digital dividends.
Sources: youtu.be/Hb7priRoeJo, communityagents.ai, communityinter.net, verdantdata.io, verdantdata.io/verdant-data-whitepaper
