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I was impressed (very impressed) by the end of Thande's excellent timeline The Twilight's Last Gleaming (I encourage you to check it out if you somehow haven't already) - and with such an open ending I wanted to do a homage of a list that played with some of the concepts (especially of descent) that were laid out so wonderfully in the overall timeline.

Without further ado, one possible political version of the future beyond 1886 in -

Past Twilight

1885-1885: S. Grover Cleveland (D-NY) / Thomas A. Hendricks (D-IN)
1884: James G. Blaine (R-ME) / John A. Logan (R-IL)
1885-1889: S. Grover Cleveland (D-NY) / Vacant [1]
1889-1893: S. Grover Cleveland (D-NY) / Joseph C. S. Blackburn (D-KY) [2]
1888: James G. Blaine (R-ME) / Thomas M. Browne (R-IN), Henry George (UL-NY) / Ignatius L. Donnelly (UL-MN) [3]
1893-1897: William O’Connell Bradley (R-KY) / Frank Hiscock (R-NY) [4]
1892: David B. Hill (D-NY) / Wade Hampton III (D-SC), Ignatius L. Donnelly (UL-MN) / Various
1897-1901: Ignatius L. Donnelly (ULD-MN) / Stephen R. Mallory, Jr. (ULD-FL) [5]
1896: William O’Connell Bradley (R-KY) / Galusha Pennypacker (R-PA)
1901-1901: Ignatius L. Donnelly (D-IL)† / Carter Harrison, Jr. (D-AR)
1900: Joseph B. Foraker (R-OH) / Powell Clayton (R-AR)
1901-1901: Carter Harrison, Jr. (D-AR) / Vacant
1901-1905: Carter Harrison, Jr. (D-AR) / John W. Smith (D-NC)[6]
1905-1913: Henry W. Lawton (R-IN) / Mahlon Pitney (R-NJ) [7]
1904: Carter Harrison, Jr. (D-AR) / George Turner (D-AL)
1908: John A. Johnson (D-IL) / Clark Howell (D-GA)
1913-1921: T. Woodrow Wilson (D-GA) / George E. Chamberlain (D-MS) [8]
1912: Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (R-IN) / Albert J. Beveridge (R-NC)
1916: Elihu Root (R-NJ) / William E. Borah (R-TX)
1921-1925: William J. Bryan (D-OK)† / Thomas F. Bayard, Jr. (D-DE)
1920: Frank O. Lowden (R-AR) / Henry W. Anderson (R-VA)
1924: Frank T. Hines (R-CA) / William P. Jackson (R-NC), Albert J. Beveridge (AM-NC) / J. Calvin Coolidge (AM-PA) [9]
1925-1925: Thomas F. Bayard, Jr. (D-DE) / Vacant
1925-1929: Thomas F. Bayard, Jr. (D-DE) / Gilbert M. Hitchcock (D-NM)
1929-1933: John G. Oglesby (R-TN) / George H. Moses (R-RI)
1928: Thomas F. Bayard, Jr. (D-DE) / Gilbert M. Hitchock (D-NM), James A. Reed (TD-LA) / Alben W. Barkley (TD-GA) [10]
1933-1941: Ralph Pulitzer (D-MD) / Jesse H. Jones (D-TX)
1932: John G. Oglesby (R-TN) / George H. Moses (R-RI)
1936: W. Frank Knox (R-OK) / Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-KY)
1941-1947: J. Strom Thurmond (R-SC)* / John G. Diefenbaker (R-MI) [11]
1940: Jesse H. Jones (D-TX) / Paul V. McNutt (D-IL)
1944: J. Melville Broughton, Jr. (D-NC) / John H. Bankhead II (D-AL)
1947-1947: John G. Diefenbaker (R-MI) / Vacant
1947-1949: John G. Diefenbaker (R-MI) / John W. Bricker (R-TN)
1949-1953: Arthur MacArthur III (NPL-MO) / Harold Stassen (NPL-MO) [12]
1948: Paul V. McNutt (D-IL) / James A. Roe (D-DC), John G. Diefenbaker (R-MI) / John W. Bricker (R-TN)
1953-1956: Emil C. Portes-Gil (D-TM) / Alben W. Barkley (D-GA)† [13]
1952: Harold Stassen (NPL-MO) / Various, Thomas H. Werdel (R-CO) / Robert T. L. Beckwith (R-IL)
1956-1956: Emil C. Portes-Gil (D-TM) / Vacant
1956-1961: Emil C. Portes-Gil (D-TM) / Warren G. Magnuson (D-HI)
1956: Joseph W. Martin, Jr. (R-CT) / Clifford M. Hardin (R-OK), Harold Stassen (NPL-MO) / Various
1961-1965: Philip La Follette (NPR-IN)† / Hugh E. Rodham (NPR-WV) [14]
1960: W. Stuart Symington, Jr. (D-LA) / Herschel C. Loveless (D-AR)
1964: Robert F. Kennedy (D-NJ) / Roy Wilkins (D-KS)
1965-1966: Hugh E. Rodham (R-WV) / Vacant
1966-1969: Hugh E. Rodham (R-WV) / Douglas Harkness (R-NY)
1969-1977: Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (R-MO) / Martin Luther King, Jr. (R-KS)
1968: George S. McGovern (D-CO) / Eugene J. McCarthy (D-MO), Harold Stassen (NPL-DC) / Various
1972: Eugene J. McCarthy (D-MO) / Mike Gravel (D-HI)
1977-1986: Frances S. Fitzgerald (D-AL)† / Peter Trudeau (D-VT) [15]
1976: Elliot L. Richardson (R-NY) / C. S. “Kit” Bond (R-MS)
1980: Leo M. Cherne (R-SC) / William E. Simon (R-MD)
1984: Katherine D. Ortega (R-TX) / Brian Mulroney (R-MA)
1986-1986: Peter Trudeau (D-VT) / Vacant
1986-1989: Peter Trudeau (D-VT) / Harlan Matthews (D-GA) [16]
1989-1993: Paul R. Ilyinsky (R-FL) / Jack F. Kemp (R-DE)
1988: Peter Trudeau (D-MA) / Harlan Matthews (D-GA)
1993-2001: Maryanne T. Clinton (D-TX) / Harris Wofford, Jr. (D-VA) [17]
1992: Paul Ilyinsky (R-FL) / Jack F. Kemp (R-DE)
1996: Steve Forbes, Jr. (R-DE) / Susan M. Golding (R-CA)
2001-2009: Michela Wrong Obama (D-NY) / John Edwards (D-GA)
2000: George E. Pataki (R-LA) / Tommy Thompson (R-IL)
2004: Linda Cutter (R-MO) / Edward I. Koch (R-GA)
2009-2017: John R. Lewis (R-KS) / Charlie Crist (R-FL) [18]
2008: Dick Durbin (D-AR) / Dennis Kucinch (D-TN)
2012: Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) / Patty Murray (D-AZ)
2017-: Susan R. Weld (R-NY) / Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. (R-CA)
2016: Barack H. Obama, Jr. (D-AR) / Carol Browner (D-FL) [19]

[1] 'Grover the Good'. Well, 'Grover the Generally Competent' anyway, which is all the man would have wanted. Insurrection, famine, ash and frost spread across the U.S. like something out of a biblical plague and President Cleveland - for once, he was able to adapt. After two very stressful terms he had a well-deserved retirement, occasionally ice-fishing in what was left of Buffalo, New York.

And modern historians most certainly don't see the Gilded Age as a parade of mustaches anymore.

[2] Getting that second term was a very near run thing mind you - taking on Joseph Blackburn as VP would have been conceivable before the Nightmare of '86 - but the South was, very quickly, looking like the major battleground now that polling stations from Maine to Montana had iced over. It was a rematch with James Blaine of course - wasn't the time for Republicans to go with an untested candidate - and Blaine would have won it too. But the holdouts in New York were mainly in Democratic areas, and the New York electors hadn't been reapportioned yet, and, and and, - Cleveland scraped through.

[3] Mayor Henry George and the United Labor Party would be happy to assure you that no - they're nothing like those rotten violent Communists at all, mind you - they just have some ideas on land and property that's all.

[4] The Governor of Kentucky was pre-eminent among Southern Republicans and for once, that seemed like a good political place to be. And he fought for black voting rights in the South - which were looking a lot more important now - and also tried to preserve order as the stream of refugees from northern states refused to let up. In the end he just pushed a little too hard, too fast.

[5] Ignatius Donnelly was an absolute nut-job with crazy ideas about comets and impacts and civilization-ending catastrophes. And then Psyche hit and he wasn't looking so crazy anymore. He was of course, but the nation was reassured that he knew what was happening, and isn't that what matters anyway? After the inept, cold-hearted David Hill tried for the Democratic nomination a second time, Donnelly took the party by storm, fusing it with United Labor and running on a platform that was a cauldron of populism, worker's rights, and outright nonsense. But he was active. And that nasty little confrontation in Haiti could have blown into war - had he and then his Illinoisan turned Arkansan Veep not managed to broker an uneasy settlement with the powers of Europe. The Tordesillas Line was back in force - sucked for Argentina and Brazil but well - the U.S. had to give ground somewhere.

[6] Having the ability to appoint a VP seemed like an obvious constitutional fix and after 86, well, the federal government certainly wasn't afraid to do whatever seemed practical.

[7] General Henry Lawton resented 'Harrison's Peace' of course - he was the one who'd fired those shells over Port-Au-Prince and become a national hero - but as President he would (barely) tamp down the bubbling tension. Fascinating things in the world of industry that the U.S. could focus on instead, after all.

[8] Wilson was very much a Donnelly Democrat - up to and including the part where he disenfranchised black voters so much that Republicans would be out of office for almost a generation. Thrilling. On the bright side we got the Concert of Nations which decided such exciting things as 'no Denmark cannot attack Siam no' and 'please dismember the Ottoman Empire in an orderly fashion, thank you, no rushing'.

[9] Republican expansionists certainly hated the fact that we stopped short of Veracruz and weren't just blindly marching into the Yucatan - that's why the wackiest of them made the Anti-Mexican Party which, yes, failed exactly as hard as you would expect against smooth-talking old Mr. Bryan and his patrician VP. (Frank Hines also did badly, mind you - practically no one from the eastern states had ever heard of him.)

[10] Reed and Barkley liked the idea of running as the 'True Democratic' ticket because of course Bayard had rigged the convention and it was a shame how the nominees weren't from the Deep South always and etc. etc. Turns out Governor Oglesby also liked the idea of a Democratic split - and with a foot in the door the Republican administration pushed full throttle for desegregation which - was it a cynical move for votes? Yes. Was it also the right thing to do? Abso-fucking-lutely. Dark horse candidate Pulitzer was moderate, and retiring enough to not roll it all back when he got elected.

[11] And then of course in reaction we got Strom 'the Boy Wonder' Thurmond, who was vaguely pragmatic enough to become a Republican and ride the tide of black votes in South Carolina - and also crazy enough to fire back at those nonwhite troops in Syria despite the fact that - yes - that would get the U.S. involved in the Austrian War. Six years of nasty trench warfare later (god how technology had advanced) - Fuhrer Schrodinger finally poisoned himself in his bunker in Vienna (people think, mind you - he was never found) - and a generation of wounded American soldiers would wish that that Austrian demagogue had been born anything else.

Also it turns out that, yes, marrying a 21 year old college senior when you're President of the United States is a stupid thing to do and, in a finally stroke of irony, President Thurmond ended up resigning for one of the few not-World War inducing things he'd done. His VP was also an absolute headcase, mind you.

[12] Enough of a headcase that Admiral Arthur MacArthur, the hero of the Battle of Wrath (and loser of several other island-hopping campaigns but that's beside the point) - crushed Diefenbaker alongside Governor McNutt. 'We Heart Art' an adoring nation roared, before he reluctantly pledged to serve only one term.

[13] The Governor of Tamaulipas was the darkest of dark horses, but Adlai and Joe Kennedy Jr. deadlocked (and everyone knew how that Joe had a massive entitlement complex mind you, like he was owed the Presidency) - and hey, Gil was available and would certainly throw Republicans for a loop with that whole 'relying on minority demographics' thing. And Gil was certainly competent - to this day the jobs programs and the global warming of the 50s are remembered fondly.

[14] Republicans stumbled in the wilderness for a while mind you (running someone from essentially a rotten borough in 1952 didn't help) - but Phil La Follette finally brought them back in a vaguely progressive direction. He and the Democrats presided over the final triumph over segregation in the U.S. , helped make the name Kennedy synonymous with 'unelectable' when he beat the gawky New Jersey liberal in a 49 state landslide - and then passed away too soon, dying less than a year after his re-election victory. Even the much older prime minister of the United Kingdom, nearing his final year in office, came across the Atlantic to mourn - and with William G. C. Gladstone weeping at a presidential funeral, the Cold Spell was over. Tough-talking Hugh Rodham may have been much more conservative - but he (and the charming Missouri senator that primaried him) were both happy to keep the peace.

[15] Alabama political powerhouse Frances Fitzgerald would have to do more than just keep the peace mind you - she had to win the war. Japan finally went to war with Denmark, astonishing the world with new bombs that could explode with the light of a sun and new planes that could deliver them almost anywhere. President Fitzgerald and Prime Minister Foot fought boldly and persistently - and finally won the war. Frances Fitzgerald would be remembered as a martyr who died shortly into her unprecedented third term - while Philippa Foot is of course idolized as Britain's Iron Lady.

[16] Pete Trudeau? Boring old guy, Vice President catapulted into a position he could never live up to, chosen as a token New Englander? That about sums it up. Mind you - banning nuclear weapons for their potential threat to global temperatures isn't a bad legacy to leave behind. Shame he was resoundingly beaten by the noble Governor of Florida.

[17] Who in turn lost to a tough, eminently qualified Governor of Texas. And her haircuts were perfectly fine, thank you.

[18] Long-time Kansas Senator (and former Governor) John Lewis is not known as the Titan of Congress for no reason - And Republicans could smile on Inauguration Day in 2009 when the specter of slavery, which had loomed so large in the long winters of yore - was finally put to rest.

[19] Barack Obama could have been the first ever First Man to become president. Instead, a tough primary challenge from Vermont Senator Justin Trudeau put paid to his aura of inevitability, and then there was his stupid insertion into foreign policy (It's a good thing that Charles Wood got more seats than Joshua Dugdale? Try explaining that to all the Hispanic-Americans who aren't going to see a free Argentina any time soon now). So of course the thoroughly unpredictable 'cowboy governor' Susan Ward got elected instead. Thanks Obama.