In his article “Washington’s Rogue Elephants,” David P. Barash relates game theory to the political showdown in Washington, particularly concerning the debt-ceiling showdown. He uses such examples as elephant mating patterns and Nixon’s “threat” to use nuclear armament on Vietnam. It is worth noting that Barash is writing this article in late July, before the debt-ceiling crisis was “resolved,” and that I am writing this with hindsight. However, this scenario is also applicable to the debate Obama’s new jobs plan will garner. That being said, I will first summarize the article. Barash’s main point is that in a normal game, both sides can expect the other to behave rationality. This is where the elephant comes in. While mating, some male elephants will play crazy—contrary to what we have thus far assumed in games. No one ever believed Nixon when he feigned craziness with his nuclear warheads. During the Cold War showdown between the United States and Russia, nuclear warfare was largely avoided because both sides could assume the other would behave rationally. However, as elephants have proven, there may be situations where feigning irrationality may work.
Pretending to be crazy forces the other side to rethink his strategies. It appears that feigning irrationality may be dominant strategy, although Barash provides a counter to it. Currently, the Republicans are living up to their mascot and playing the crazy elephant. It was largely viewed that Republicans will agree to no compromise and let the country go into fiscal turmoil unless their terms are met. Barash writes, “In either case, whether you’re confronting a rogue elephant or a rogue nuclear state, the advice is the same: stop playing the game. Avoid the elephant or shoot it; politically isolate the rogue state or use military force to disarm it.” As we saw from the debt-ceiling debate, Democrats and Obama failed to isolate the Republicans and cast them as illogical. Instead, they continued playing the game, trying to compromise, and that is where they failed. The Democrats assumed the Republicans would have to cave at same point, and because of this, they failed to adopt a strategy that would counter what the Republicans would actually do, which is not compromise at all. Now, in relation to the job plan debate, the Republicans again refused to consider Obama’s plan, even before Obama even revealed the content. Obama has another opportunity to play, or not play the Republican’s game. Although, as historical trends have shown, Obama is very likely to try and play the same game of compromise, and will fail for it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/opinion/27Barash.html