A quiet contradiction has settled over American politics: the lawmakers most alarmed by artificial intelligence are also the ones least willing to say so in public. Democrats on Capitol Hill have found rare common ground with Republicans on the need to reckon with AI's dangers, yet on the campaign trail they have chosen strategic silence, calculating that voters are not yet ready to feel the urgency their private conversations suggest. The gap between what is understood in the halls of power and what is spoken aloud to citizens may itself be one of the defining features of how this technology