All this recent politics can't help but remind me of the American Party (of the 1850s), and the nickname that it received, and I wonder perhaps if the collapse of the second party system can be transferred onto the last decade or two and upon what side. Both parties are in pretty poor shape, whoever won this election got themselves eight years of a reprieve, but ultimately something is going to have to give.
I wonder what it would take to shatter the two party system, to break down the Democrats and the Republicans into seperate parties reflecting the splits within them, and indeed how many parties would be needed to accomodate these splits. I'm aware of a two way split in the Dems between the Bernie and Hillary sides, but in the Republicans it seems to be more of a three way split between the Trumpists, Neo-Cons and Tea Party groups.
Either which way, there's going to be a lot of political upheavals ahead, that much is
certain.