Can Hillary Clinton win the Republican strongholds Arizona and Georgia? At the moment, thanks to Donald J. Trump’s self-destructive tendencies and both states’ growing populations of professionals and nonwhites, it’s possible.

The 2016 election is poised to be the most polarized presidential election in our lifetime, deeply split along racial, gender, generational and educational lines. The outcome could leave the balance of power in Washington virtually unchanged and yet simultaneously heighten both parties’ distrust of each other to the level of hysteria.

It also promises to reorder the electoral map in powerful ways. In 1996, Bill Clinton carried Iowa, Missouri and Ohio on his way to re-election, while losing Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. Twenty years later, Hillary Clinton’s path to 270 electoral votes is more likely to do the opposite.