Electoral battles

How 2016 will shape the future of American politics

The 2016 primaries have been a thrilling rollercoaster ride for everyone who's been paying attention. Every round of voting has raised a new set of questions about the outcome of this year's presidential contest. Will the populist demagogue Donald Trump actually succeed in winning the Republican nomination? Is there any way for party elites to stop him? On the Democratic side, might a self-described socialist manage to beat out establishment stalwart Hillary Clinton? How will Bernie Sanders' fervent supporters respond if he fails to secure the nomination?

And yet, despite all the 2016 intrigue, the events of the past several months have been exciting at least as much for what they might portend for the future.

It's possible that all of the drama will come to nothing — that Sanders will lose, give up gracefully, encourage his millions of supporters to rally around Clinton, and succeed in convincing them to do so; and that the eventual GOP nominee will run in the general election and even govern as a standard-issue post-Reagan Republican, promising to cut taxes on the wealthy, talking tough about immigration but not building a wall or deporting 11 million people, maintaining the post-Cold War international order, and railing against (but not doing much about) liberal social-sexual trends.