It is one of the many quirks of our completely busted public discourse that relatively political minor issues (like Stormy Daniels) often get enormous amounts of “news” coverage, while other, far more significant topics, receive relatively very little. It sure seems like the prospect of President Donald Trump deciding not to run for a second term has, until the last couple of days, fit into the latter category.

After all, Trump’s decision whether to run for reelection will likely shape our politics for at least a generation. Heck, the mind boggles when considering all of the thousands of events which would have been different in the past political era if Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford had stuck with their agreement for Ford, and not George H.W. Bush, to be Reagan’s Vice Presidential nominee.

If Trump does run in 2020 — which, on paper, would appear to be the most likely scenario — then there are really only two logical paths going forward. Either Trump wins reelection with a Democratic Congress, and Reagan’s GOP becomes forever as irrelevant and forgotten as the public phone booth, or, Democrats, likely led by a progressive in the White House, will likely control most of the federal government until at least 2029.