Game Theory and the Republican Party
With election day rapidly approaching, many Republicans have begun rescinding their endorsement of the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Many are questioning how he even got this far in the first place. In this recently published Bloomberg article, economists use game theory to offer an explanation as to why the party is falling apart. Game theory is a branch of mathematics that analyzes strategies in competitive situations when one player’s decisions are affected by the other players involved. The players in this case are the members of the Republican party. When Trump began getting support during the primaries, it was more favorable for Republicans to support him rather than to oppose him due to the bandwagon nature of the nomination and party loyalty.
Despite Trump’s history of racism and sexism, the turning point occurred when the tape of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting a woman was recently released. Suddenly, many republicans revoked their support after finally deciding that Trump would not be fit to serve as President. In terms of game theory, the republicans chose the wrong strategy twice, first by not opposing Trump in the beginning (allowing him to become the nominee) and then for rescinding their endorsement so close to election day. This has been very detrimental to the party as we’ve already seen it begin to fall apart. Game theory can also be applied to this situation to lay out the different strategies that party members now face: they can either decide to continue supporting Trump or distance themselves as much as possible. At this point, it seems nearly impossible for the party to switch candidates so late in the game.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-09/puzzled-about-republicans-and-trump-game-theory-helps