The town hall in America prevailed in 2026

In a commentary, SMU Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College of Integrative Studies Elvin Lim opined that the 3 November midterms marked a second chance at the political realignment that Barack Obama promised and could not complete. He said the first signs lie in the night’s local votes, where voters in some 41 American localities were asked whether a data centre should be built there and, in all but one, said no, or not without conditions. Prof Lim said voters shrank this midterm election to the size of a zoning hearing, where a neighbour’s electricity bill outweighs a lobbyist’s cheque. He noted that the AI boom is not over, but it will go on, more slowly and more expensively, and more of it in Asia.