1988 wasn't a 50/50 year.
Doesn't matter. Let's take a look at a 50/50 year from 30 years ago, granted that's a longer time frame than this question asked but still.
Well that's a 50/50 election from 30 years ago and look how much has changed. Carter swept the South, something which probably no Democrat could do now, and he lost all of the West and parts of the Northeast. This is just 30 years of electoral change. Plus you have to factor in that the next 20 years, just like the past 20 years, wont be made up of constant 50/50 elections, unless we get into a rut which is basically equivalent of the period between 1872 and 1896. That's the thing. It is impossible for anyone to extrapolate what the map will look like twenty years out. Anyone could be right, of course, but my money is always on the on that looks like the least likely to happen. Since it only took 8 years from the South being the only Democratic stronghold during a landslide, in the 1856 election, to being the only Republican stronghold during a landslide, 1964, and only 16 years until it was won by over 70% of the vote by a Republican during a landslide, 1972.
This map was always my prediction for the future so I will stick with it. The Republicans become populists and the Democrats become moderate libertarians. Thus resulting in this map:
But I'm starting to think that my other prediction might be more realistic. 
This is the 1976 map. There is no map in 1986. It was 30 years ago in 2006, it's 40 years ago now in 2016.
