The Voters Just Reinstated the Checks and Balances

Tuesday night was not a routine midterm swing. Democrats flipped seven Republican-held Senate seats, in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. NBC News projects they will win about 258 House seats, a number not reached since 1993. Flipping both chambers in a midterm has happened only five times since World War II.

The result matters most for what it restores. For two years, Congress has largely stood aside as the White House launched a war without a vote and ran spending its own way. A divided government is not gridlock for its own sake. It is the Constitution working as designed, with subpoenas, hearings and a budget the president must negotiate rather than dictate.

Americans did not vote for chaos. They voted for friction, for a government that has to explain itself. Whatever one thinks of the policies, a president who answers questions is better than one who never faces them.

The other side: Republicans argue the vote reflects ordinary midterm fatigue and prices, not a verdict on the agenda, and that obstruction by the new majority will stall border and economic policy voters also wanted.