The precise contours of the division were clarified on Tuesday. Democrats won by huge margins in almost every city, and they made inroads in plenty of suburbs. But rural areas are now close to uniformly Republican. This is true just about everywhere — north, south, east, and west. That translated, with Trump in the White House acting as a constant provocation, into enough House districts to give the Democrats a slim but solid majority. But it also places a lot of relative low-population-density states firmly in the Republican column.

The battle between these architectonic urban-rural factions has shaped our politics for the better part of two decades now, and it’s only going to continue and intensify. The House will go after the president, driven on by the outrage of Democratic voters who detest him. But Trump will train his rage on the House, keeping the Republican base in a state of constant hyper-partisan agitation as the country begins to gear up for the 2020 presidential race. And all the while the White House and the Senate will keep appointing conservative judges to the federal courts, ensuring further loyalty of Republican voters.

There is no exit in sight from the rancor and divisiveness of the past two years. No tranquility to follow the clamorous cacophony. No break in the logjam between the left and right.