I don't know that I really like this concept. Bill Clinton totally turned the map around in 1992, but the signs of what would come were decently clear if you looked at the 1988 results. And while things have changed a lot since 1992, I'd argue there actually hasn't been a massive realignment since then. A few things have changed and solidified (West Virginia, Missouri, and some of WJC's Southern states going going red; Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada going blue), but the general structure of things seems stable.
This election, though, could be our 1988. We have clear signs of where things could go in the future. And to be honest, people were already talking about this happening (Rust Belt red, Sunbelt and Southwest blue). So what happens in the next couples cycles will really determine whether the realignment happens. To keep it in perspective, Donald Trump won all of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania by basically 1.
So if Democrats can win back these places (which is definitely possible), they'll stave off realignment and potentially expand on the current structure of things with more support in the South/Southwest. If they can't, they will
need the South/Southwest, and the country's structure of presidential political support will have truly realigned.
(^Far down the line, maybe.)
