TBD on Ning
Modern Politics; i.e., The Game of Chicken
President Obama is cutting his Christmas holiday short, returning to Washington for a last attempt at avoiding the fiscal cliff. But he's running headlong into the Republican strategy of fanaticism.
It's a long-established principle of game theory (see Thomas Schelling's classic 1956 essay in theAmerican Economic Review) that a fanatic who restricts his freedom to avert a disaster puts maximum pressure on his opponent to give ground.
In a game of highway chicken, for example, the driver that can't swerve because he's tied his hands to the steering wheel and chained his foot to the accelerator forces the other to swerve in order to avoid crashing.
The trick is for the first driver to convince the second that he's crazy enough to have committed himself to instant death if the second doesn't act rationally.
House Speaker John Boehner's failure to persuade rank-and-file House Republicans to raise taxes even on millionaires fits the fanatic's strategy exactly. Boehner can now credibly claim he has no choice in the matter -- Republican fanatics in the House have tied his hands and manacled his feet -- so the only way to avoid going over the cliff is for Obama and the Democrats to make more concessions." Read more...
So, according to Robert Reich, the Republicans win again?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by LoveLife&Laughter on
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Personally, I think the smartest move Obama can do is to not make any more concessions, but to "fall off the cliff".
I say so because we can only save America from fanaticism by doing so...
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Permalink Reply by P.A. on
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I tend to agree with you but it is sad that it has come to this. On the bright side it could mark the end of the Tea Party.
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Permalink Reply by exedir on
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Win, win situation, actually. In the end this was all stage as a moral drama of intent vs. results. The results are already baked in the cake as to advantages to either party and the subsets of the congressional party caucuses.
The better scenario is that pictured in Thelma and Louise to embrace the inevitable, back her up and let her rip to fall in slow motion to the final solution. In this case it is embrace your fears and recognize that you have to commit to do something, even if it is self-destructive. And it does make a point, going over the cliff, that you are irrational and selfish which represents the state of politics today.
Remember it was...
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Barsten on
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The boys that could...?
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Permalink Reply by The Dyslexic Dodger on
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i think that the tea party republicans have consistantly shown ther e tru obstructoinist nature threwout the presidential and now to the cliff. The entire GOP is a luaghing stock to more and more voters. I dont see the President being able to swing a last minute save to avoid going over. Boehner is a pompas ass who is just waiting for Jan.3rd.
Win , Win for president Obama.
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Permalink Reply by redhand on
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I think I'm gonna stop listening to the news until the new year is well along the way. When someone named Phil Cliff can keep congress type people away from their job (probably with a rubber band gun), I just don't need to know all the news that is news.
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This election supposedly was Obama's baby, but even if the President throws in the baby with the bathwater it won't be enough for the Tea Party. What we have here is a wannabe dictatorship trying to take over the country very much like the Nazis did to Germans in the 1930's. There really isn't that much difference; i.e., "My way or the highway."
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Permalink Reply by ProblemAgain on
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Even Mainstream Pundits Are Now Saying, Republicans 'No Longer a Normal Governing Party,' 'Unfit for Government'
December 26, 2012 | -
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I was just talking with a freind yesterday...agian.. reguarding Republican obstructoinism. I am seroiusly becomeing concerned that the infestation of TP radicalism (and money) may be corupting the GOP to a level of dysfunctoin that it wil not be salvageable.
A mutual freind, a "old time" died in the wool Republican attorney's responce to what has become of his party is to stop voteing. I understand boycott as a political statement. However I think with the level of GOP dysfunctoin (especialy in Congress) boycott or passive resistance is not going to help return sanity and functoin to the GOP.
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The 8 Craziest Republican Legislative Proposals Of 2012
December 27, 2012 |The following is ThinkProgress' list of the 8 Craziest Republican Legislative Proposals Of 2012
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/8-craziest-republican-l...
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Ok, so even Plan "C" is in trouble. So, as to what makes any of this new and exciting, nah, not much. The 112th Congress will go out in less than 48 hours, so, what about the 113th? Any better, nah, not much.
What was given was taken as to the opportunity to do damage to the other side, both sides in the 112th. And not withstanding a Obama win on the presidential ticket, the overall congressional result didn't change that much considering the presidential party gains seats.
So, what happens next? The fiscal cliff has been surveyed and the depths remain unknowing while the black hole of the debt ceiling looms, or rather gaps, as to what will be done and who will do it. The idea that a further reduction of the credit standing of US debt was going to take a hit with the cliff appears to be in abeyance, however, the debt ceiling is another matter for those that hold US debt.
As of now the president says he will not negotiate on the debt ceiling, which, of course is a rhetorical position not a realistic one. If the results of the fiscal cliff debacle are not "fixed" by the time of the next not the meeting of the minds and hearts of congress, the abyss is truly open to what the future of the American economy will be.
In the meantime, the hangovers will continue, and yes, it is mostly grumpy old men that will decide this one way or another.
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