Tommy Tuberville Is Only The Latest Republican To Take Credit For Massive Broadband Investment They Voted Against

This week the Biden administration basically re-announced the $42.5 billion in broadband funding that will soon start flowing to the states to shore up U.S. broadband access. Despite press reports that this funding is somehow new, it came as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Not too surprisingly, numerous Republicans that voted down and vilified the act are now trying to pretend they supported it to score points with local voters. Like Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who took to social media to pretend this was all a great idea he supported. Readers were quick to, well, correct him:

Tuberville got a lot of well-deserved flack for this on social media. His effort to laud something he opposed also managed to get a lot more press coverage than broadband usually gets in the NFTs will save the planet if AI doesn't destroy it first" media hype era.

The thing is, it's not just Tuberville doing this. And it's not new. Pretty much every Republican who opposed and vilified the infrastructure bill is now taking credit for it. Because the bill puts states in charge of dispersing funds, most Republicans (including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis) are using that as an opportunity to rename the program something else and hide the fact that it came from the feds at all.

Since we've basically lobotomized local news and replaced it with propaganda and gibberish, it's unlikely most voters will ever realize they were lied to.

But the data won't lie: most (not all) of these Republican states taking credit for broadband investment they opposed are going to funnel the lion's share of this money to the very same giant telecom monopolies responsible for spotty, expensive broadband access. Companies with very rich, detailed histories of ripping off subsidy programs and delivering perpetually half-completed networks.

In stark contrast, a lot of other states (predominantly Democrat-run) like WA, CA, ME, VT are directing money toward open access fiber networks, open access middle mile networks, cooperatives, city-owned utilities, municipalities, and other creative efforts to challenge monopoly power and finally bring some real competition to bear on a US broadband market that's long been heavily monopolized.

It's simply not hard to prove that Republicans generally suck on broadband policy. Recall, just two years ago the Republican House tried to ban extremely popular community-owned and operated broadband networks entirely. Their entire broadband policy platform often involves just letting giant monopolies like AT&T and Comcast do whatever they want, then bullshitting you about the obvious, ugly net result.

That's not to give Democrats a free pass. I routinely criticize many Democrats for being corrupt and/or feckless, with the strategic messaging chops of an aging sweet potato. Their strategic incompetence on the Gigi Sohn nomination was an embarrassment, and many of them love to talk ambiguously about curing the digital divide" without ever acknowledging or challenging monopoly power.

Democratic leaders and consultants cry like diaper-dampened toddlers when you mention that their messaging sucks, but it's routinely true. To the point where Republicans are better at taking credit for something they had nothing to do with, than Democrats are explaining to the public how and why they accomplished something important.

For example, the Biden Administration's re-announcement of the broadband funding this week was filled with droll platitudes about opportunity and the digital divide. More effective messaging would exploit the widespread, bipartisan disdain US consumers have for broadband and cable giants. But that might upset campaign contributors and intelligence gathering allies, so they embrace the mundane.

As always, there are exceptions when it comes to partisan generalizations. North Dakota sees Republican supermajorities, yet is awash with affordable fiber access thanks to local cooperatives forged in the 90s. Tennessee is home to some of the best broadband in the country thanks to many city-owned utilities. And there are plenty of Democrat-run states that adore kissing AT&T, Charter, or Comcast's ass.

That said, generally the Democratic side at least believes in the benefits of genuine pro-competition telecom policy. Many of them have openly embraced extremely popular, grass-roots, community owned and operated broadband networks. They support spending money on essential infrastructure. They (sometimes) support having cogent consumer protection regulators. And many of them are directing a lot of this money to genuinely transformative, locally owned alternatives to Comcast domination.

That's in contrast to the Republican side, whose telecom policy approach has generally involved letting hated companies like AT&T and Comcast dictate nearly all telecom policy, lobotomizing any and all state and federal efforts to hold these companies accountable for anything, voting against federal programs to fix anything, crushing popular local grassroots efforts to fix the problem underfoot, then lying repeatedly about the obvious result of regulatory capture, monopolization, market failure, and limited competition.

With such a massive, historic infusion of broadband money, the data by 2028 or so should be pretty clear as to which states wasted the opportunity on monopoly-coddling status quo, and which states actually put the money to good use driving long-overdue, creative competitive alternatives to market.

Republicans like Tuberville will lie, ignore the data, dodge accountability, or take unearned credit for policies they opposed anyway, but reality persists and observant adults will still know the score.