What we saw yesterday was the beginning of something very important—a return to normal politics. For five years since the horrible events of 9/11, many of the routine characteristics of American partisan politics have been set aside. Some of that has happened with good reason, because we are united in our determination to fight terrorism and to punish those responsible for terrorist acts around the world. And some has occurred because of uncertainty about what the course of action ought to be, while the president and supporters in Congress have been decisive about such things as the need to invade Iraq. The results have not been good.

In addition to blundering into an unnecessary war in Iraq, there has been, generally, negligible Congressional oversight in many areas. The result is that the public found it difficult to learn details about how the government was carrying on its business—from enforcement of environmental and health regulations to implementing the Patriot Act. All of that has been instantly changed by the new lineup in Congress. Now decisions will be held up to the light and argued in a quite a different way. Now politics may resume its normal bumpy, but somehow-in-the-end-it-all-works-out-right American style of politics

Most outfits like The Century Foundation, pretty much regardless of political inclination, are committed to a simple idea: that analysis, research, debate, discussion are the best ways to formulate public policy. In this sense, even though people may have their own strong ideas and beliefs, they acknowledge and applaud the virtues of an open mind. That recognition doesn’t imply a lack of support for an aggressive agenda by either political party, but it does tend to dampen enthusiasm for the politics of rigid ideology and enforced conformity.

The election results yesterday, in part, were about restoring that sort of politics. It isn’t so much that Democrats offered a set of specific alternatives to the policies the Bush administration has pursued, with a Republican Congress acting as cheerleader; it is more that the public seems hungry for the kind of give-and-take, and even conflict, that is the proper relationship between an Administration and a Congress. In my judgment (and these are all only my personal views), the public wants someone to ask the questions they feel should be asked, and to press for answers.

One of the things we know about human institutions is that they function better when they are subject to scrutiny, when they provide transparency which makes that scrutiny informed, and when they are forced by the pressure of outside examination to reconsider their own premises.

The conservative menu of the Republican Party has gotten plenty of validation at the election box over the last couple of decades. It has never, however, enjoyed overwhelming support in terms of specific policies or actions. This dichotomy shows up in poll after poll. This situation, in the long run, can be toxic for a political party, leading to overreach. It’s worked that way for both Democrats and Republicans in the past.

Now with the country bogged down in a violent occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a mounting sense that domestic problems are being allowed to drift or being abandoned as common projects, the public is uneasy and quite naturally insistent on having their uneasiness addressed directly. Accustomed to the success of slogans and clever spin heavily supported by a large infrastructure of media and quasi-political organizations, the Administration and its supporters in Congress may have become complacent about their ability to manage any degree of public unease.

I suspect Democrats will be relatively gentle compared to the Republicans when they gained the majority in 1994. The Democrats’ general consensus about the importance of finding the “common good,” almost by definition, means finding common ground—ground usually shared with some Republicans. But the days of unquestioning obedience, loyalty, and swallowing all questions for the sake of national unity are over. And that is a good thing. All the course corrections needed will not come in the next two years, but we may hear more about them and that, at least, is a beginning.

Richard C. Leone is president of The Century Foundation.