Most polarizing election in the past 70 years

[twenty42]

1988 was a pretty rough election by the standards of its day. Neither candidate was very inspiring, or nearly as popular as the sitting president. There was a lot of negativism on both sides as well...not so much perpetuated by the candidates themselves, but by their respective bases. It was definitely a "Glad it's over" election.

If Hillary had won in 2016, it would have been a perfect parallel to 1988.

[twenty42]

A lot of you don't seem to understand what the definition of "polarization" is.

Polarization is not a synonym for "intense," "hostile environment," "divisive atmosphere," "bitterly fought," and so on.  You can have a calm, boring election that is very polarized.  You can also have an intensely fought election in a hostile atmosphere that is not polarized.

Agreed, and I'd say 2012 and 1980 would be respective examples.

The former was a pretty boring election, but there were relatively few swing states and the path to 270 was narrow for both candidates. Obama happened to sweep the swing states minus NC, and his EC margin made his victory look more comfortable than it was in reality.

The latter was a very heated, emotional election which was thought to be a dead heat going into the evening, but Reagan had enough crossover appeal in the end to secure a blowout in the PV and the EV.