Tragedy of the commons
To Trump or not to Trump. That is the question.
I am having “first world” problems this morning. The wi-fi system is “down” at the Nashua Extended stay place, and the hotel is is a shadow of cell phone reception. Amid the grave problems of the world, this is a small one, but it is mine.
This weekend Republicans aspirants will demonstrate the problem of common spaces, discussed by Aristotle and by philosophers, economists, and game theorists ever since. It is in the interest of each candidate to grab all the non-Trump votes available, so each attempt a long-shot, hail-Mary campaign. If they all dropped out and supported Nikki Haley, she would defeat Trump, I think, and she would defeat Biden. That race would pit yesterday-Biden against the today-post-Trump-GOP, a bad matchup for Democrats. I am here in New Hampshire to see if it happens.
Meanwhile, the GOP-majority House is doing a version of the same thing. The bomb-throwers on the nihilist right insist on policies that will bury the 25-40 GOP House members who represent purple and blue districts — including one of Oregon’s. Republicans are considering advancing Steve Scalise. He voted against recognizing electoral votes cast for Biden. He still refuses to say aloud in public that Biden won and Trump came short. That is a deal-killer for some Republicans, and it is toxic for about 60-65% of Americans.
Republicans are superb at appealing to disaffected working class Americans who feel the institutions of government aren’t working in their interest. Democrats need to recognize that this group carves out a huge segment of the traditional Democratic coalition, and it could cause Republicans to win national elections. Republicans are doing self-defeating things, but may win anyway.
I cannot recommend Extended Stay America hotels. Quite the opposite. Avoid them.
I am writing this on an I-pad with a weak phone connection.