has the story of the past several decades in presidential elections

[SingingAnalyst]

Bill Bishop discusses this phenomenon in The Big Sort. At that time 2004 was the most recent election, but his predictions have become even more true. Today's alignments are pretty much set in stone, and it would take a major upheaval to undo them. For example, Hurricane Katrina did not. The Dems will never nominate a pro-lifer or someone who supports religious exeptions to anti-gay discrimination laws, for example, and the GOP will never nominate a Wiccan. Except for the very poor, people vote more on these "social" issues than economic ones, believing both parties to be of, by, and for the very rich (which in truth they are). Perhaps the last holdout was West Virginia, which went from Clinton's 5th best state in 1992 to Obama's 5th worst in 2012.