"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."-- John Adams, Letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 October 1780), "The Works of John Adams", vol 9, p.511
And yet it happened. The electoral college system virtually guaranteed it. It’s possibly America’s biggest constitutional Achilles’ heel.
It would be interesting to puzzle out how the constitution could be rejiggered to welcome third parties without ending up with the perpetually shifting micro-coalitions of Eurotrashia.
In the meantime, the occasion to call out heroes is during the primaries. Open or closed, the GOP turnout for same this year stank worse than Barack Obama.