Who requested Nikki Haley to run for president? Can anyone 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 hitch the Republican discipline? 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 think about 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, for my part, that the massive variety of candidates will possible give a plurality of votes to Donald Trump and that, subsequently, he’ll possible 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 could possibly 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 successful is small and would love the others to exit in order that he/she may have a a lot likelihood. None of them has a powerful 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.”
