Who requested Nikki Haley to run for president? Can any person introduce us to the gentlepersons who satisfied Tim Scott to enter the competition? Is anyone exterior of his household and his congregation urging Mike Pence to affix the Republican area? The identical applies to the opposite lengthy photographs — Vivek Ramaswamy, Doug Burgum, Chris Sununu and Chris Christie — who’ve been flashing their presidential dance playing cards at voters. Have any of them stopped to contemplate the deleterious impact that having a swarm of candidates within the race might need on the end result?
That is from Jack Shafer, “Return of the Republican Clown Automotive,” Politico, June 1, 2023.
Shafer goes on to level out, appropriately, for my part, that the big variety of candidates will doubtless give a plurality of votes to Donald Trump and that, due to this fact, he’ll doubtless be the 2024 presidential candidate.
In reply to Shafer’s final query, my guess is that a few of them stopped and requested that query however a few of them, not less than, thought they may very well be “the one.” Others are in all probability doing it for the publicity and the associated different issues that publicity may result in.
What this illustrates is the tragedy of the commons. Every is aware of that his or her chance of profitable is small and would love the others to exit in order that he/she may have a a lot chance. None of them has a robust incentive to care in regards to the large image that, I’m guessing, all of them wish to keep away from: the nomination of Donald Trump.
That’s the way in which the commons works.
For extra on that, see the article that I commissioned the late Garrett Hardin to jot down for The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, “The Tragedy of the Commons.”
