2020 with a non-Trump Republican

[Roll Roons]

Let's say Kasich, Jeb!, Rubio or Cruz managed to get the nomination and beat Hillary in 2016. What changes? What policies get passed? How do the 2018 midterms go? What does the 2020 Democratic field look like?

[Agonized-Statism]

Coronavirus and the Russo-Saudi price war are inevitable because they weren't created by US leadership, and those shape 2020 regardless. IMO, polarization continues and the president is seen as ineffectual, and the anti-establishment pressure comes from the Democrats. Of course they'll never let Sanders win, but maybe someone like Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, or Robert O'Rourke gets the nomination. If we're in a recession at this point in that timeline, they probably win- especially if the president is religious right or a Tea Partier like Cruz.