Who requested Nikki Haley to run for president? Can any individual introduce us to the gentlepersons who satisfied Tim Scott to enter the competition? Is anyone outdoors of his household and his congregation urging Mike Pence to hitch the Republican subject? The identical applies to the opposite lengthy pictures — 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 may need on the end result?
That is from Jack Shafer, “Return of the Republican Clown Automobile,” Politico, June 1, 2023.
Shafer goes on to level out, accurately, in my opinion, 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, at the very least, thought they may very well be “the one.” Others are most likely doing it for the publicity and the associated different issues that publicity would possibly result in.
What this illustrates is the tragedy of the commons. Every is aware of that his or her likelihood of profitable is small and would really like the others to exit in order that he/she may have a a lot likelihood. None of them has a powerful incentive to care concerning the massive 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.”
