D.C. Republicans cast principles aside for stone age neo-Luddism

It wasn’t that long ago that Republicans championed themselves as the party of lower taxes, free trade, innovation and took an unflinching stance on unions, but then something curious happened.

A populist movement upended the political right’s long-standing order.

While you can still see traditional Republican principles in action at the state level, many Republicans in Washington D.C. seem pleased to abandon them, and their populist policies unfortunately trickle down to the Peach State—often to our detriment.

The White House has picked trade fights with some of America’s closest allies, sought to end free trade agreements and levied hefty tariffs on imported goods, which is a tax on American consumers. After years of grappling with inflation, Georgians don’t need the White House to make prices even higher.

The latest example of Republicans eschewing their long-held principles comes from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who apparently takes umbrage with autonomous vehicles, which are being slowly deployed across the country.

Driverless vehicle company Waymo has even partnered with Uber to launch robo-taxis in Atlanta, and self-driving pods are coming to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport.

This emerging technology is poised to break into other markets around the state too, but Hawley wants to slam the brakes on this progress. “I think we ought to ban autonomous vehicles,” he complained, and he plans to introduce legislation called the “Autonomous Vehicle Safety Act” to effectively prohibit driverless vehicles.

So what’s the source of his beef with these machines? It’s twofold: He asserts that they are “not safe” and “would be terrible, terrible for working people.”

He even added, “If [autonomous vehicles] become the norm, the Teamsters won’t exist anymore.” Hawley may be the first prominent, self-identified Republican in recent memory to express this level of concern for the labor union’s health, but never mind that.

Hawley’s claims raise some eyebrows. To begin with, autonomous vehicles come stocked with a host of sensors, cameras and AI technology to enable them to operate in a safe and efficient manner. Are they perfect? Of course not, but then again, human drivers are dangerously far from perfect.

Insurer Swiss Re decided to look into driverless cars’ safety record, and its findings undermine Hawley’s complaint. “Compared to the overall driving population [Waymo’s autonomous vehicles boasted] an 88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims,” reads the report.

In other words, Swiss Re found Waymo’s fleet much safer than human-driven cars, and the reasons are obvious. Autonomous vehicles don’t drive intoxicated, distracted or tired. So adding more of them could make roads safer, but Hawley doesn’t seem supportive of this.

Even if he conceded his flawed point on safety, he maintains that autonomous vehicles will hurt unions and put people out of work. This places him squarely in the neo-Luddite movement. Luddites were “early 19th century British textile workers who vandalized modern looms and other innovative, time-saving machinery that they feared would put them out of business,” writes my R Street colleague Steven Greenhut.

Standing in the way of technological progress for this reason is ridiculous. Imagine if cavemen opposed the introduction of the spear because it would eliminate the need for larger hunting parties to take down woolly mammoths.

This is the philosophy that Hawley is endorsing, and I can hear Neanderthals groaning in disgust at Hawley’s suggestions.

That aside, while Hawley thinks autonomous vehicles will steal human jobs, they may help supplement our workforce. The American Trucking Associations reported in 2021 that the industry had a shortage of 80,000 drivers, and by 2030, that number could double to 160,000.

Moreover, restrictions exist that greatly limit the number of hours truckers can drive.

Faced with this reality, it is clear that autonomous vehicles could help fill some of these vacancies, and since driverless big rigs don’t get tired, they can drive so long as they have gas—thereby easing complex and over-burdened supply chains.

It remains to be seen what might be in Hawley’s draft bill, but Business Insider claimed to receive an advanced copy of it and described its content: “The bill, as drafted, would effectively ban driverless cars nationwide by requiring the presence of ‘human safety operators’ in any autonomous vehicles driving on a public road.” If passed, this would be bad news and adversely impact Georgia’s position as a leader on autonomous vehicles.

Many Republicans in D.C. are in the midst of a transformation, and Hawley is the latest example of how elements in the GOP are evolving. They now support unions and economic protectionism and oppose competition and innovation. At this rate, Republicans may find continued success elusive if they reject the principles that long defined them and the emerging technologies that will define tomorrow.