Nobody has any clue what post-pandemic politics will look like.

On the left, some fantasize about somehow replacing Joe Biden with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which makes a lot of sense given Cuomos impressive performance of late, except for the near impossibility of orchestrating such a handoff.

The situation on the right is even more opaque. For good or ill, the pandemic has made President Trump an even more central figure in our politics, thanks to the role the White House plays in a national emergency and his nightly, often rambling, news conferences.

Thats not all to the GOPs advantage. Trumps refusal to admit any error in how hes handled the crisis has had the unintended effect of starving Republicans of some useful talking points. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to float the idea that the Democrats impeachment fixation distracted Trump from following through after the travel ban with a more robust response to the pandemic when it would have made a difference, but Trump himself threw cold water on that.

Regardless, as the right gears up for either a Trump win or a lame duck presidency amid a hard period of recovery, its possible to glean some contours of post-pandemic Republican politics.

Trump was always going to be the nominee, but his set of issues has been reshuffled entirely. He was all set to run on a roaring economy, pitting himself against socialism even though his preferred foil, Bernie Sanders, just dropped out of the race. Now, the economy has headed south, and our anti-socialist president is ordering businesses to do the governments bidding and handing out direct payments to millions of Americans.

Trumps vacillation between the need to clamp down on the virus and his desire to open up the economy is somewhat symbolic of the broader divides on the right. Longtime MAGA consigliere Steve Bannon tells The New York Times that the GOPs commitment to limited government is gone forever. Others in the Trumpist orbit, such as Donald Trump Jr., are still pushing the idea that the corona-hype is overblown and just part of an effort to take down his dad.

Somewhere in the middle, conservative politicians and intellectuals are trying to find a less Trumpcentric path.

Long before the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, Sen. Marco Rubio and a coterie of eggheads were firing salvos at unfettered capitalism as if that described the status quo at any point in the last century of American politics and offering a blueprint for common good capitalism. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, Trumps former U.N. ambassador (for whom my wife worked), resigned from the board of Boeing last month in protest over its request for a federal bailout. It was a principled stand, but its anyones guess whether corporate bailouts will be as unpopular on the right as they were before the pandemic.

While its hard to know whether crony capitalism will remain out of favor, you can count on China to stay in the doghouse for years to come.

Thats good news for one politician worth watching: Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Long a China hawk, Cotton is credited with convincing Trump to implement the China travel ban (though Trump didnt go as far as Cotton wanted). He deserves credit for spotting the threat and speaking out early on. Widely assumed to have presidential aspirations, Cotton has also deftly managed to avoid being seen as a Trump yes-man unlike, say, Sen. Lindsey Graham while remaining a favorite of the presidents.

If the GOP ultimately sours on Trumps handling of the crisis, Cotton would be ideally situated to highlight his prescience. But thats a long way off, and for now its worth noting that Cotton is running ads supporting the presidents response to the pandemic.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch.

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Post-pandemic political scene a work in progress - Boston Herald