[ExI] Old still true

[David Lubkin]

Spike wrote:

>Oy vey, ja.  Add to that all the weird game theory involved in democracy,
>where for instance partisans of one party enroll in the competing party and
>intentionally support extremist candidates that are unelectable.  I think I
>see that happening now.

The trouble with that game is that sometimes those "unelectable
extremist candidates" *do* get elected, and are far worse for
those opposing partisans than a tamer alternative would have
been.

For instance, Joe Heinous is elected President of the United
States and gets to appoint two heinette Justices. Or an Adolf
Heinous starts a true despotic reign.

As a New Hampshire resident who gets to vote in whichever
party's primary I want, I'm tempted to try to play that game. But
seeing the ways it could go wrong, I choose to vote *for*
someone.

The only bit of game theory is that I might vote for a primary
candidate because I think they are bringing up issues that
should be discussed and I want them around for a few more
debates and press interviews. In the actual election, the
calculation is vote for my preference unless the race is very
close between two other candidates, one tolerable and one
not.


-- David.