Political Prisoner’s Dilemma

One wonders if the major players on the Left or Right would remember Psych 101, they’d recall that the “Tit-For-Tat” method of “Prisoner’s Dilemma” called for the first move to always be to “Cooperate”, and that every move thereafter mirror their counterparts’ move[s] [see: http://www.gametheory.net/dictionary/TitforTat.html]. Yet the Left seems to never get out of “cooperate” mode, and the Right demonstrates an inability to even consider the possibility of making that move.

Re the Left, Iran provides the most important illustration. Ironically, this Administration’s new foreign policy seems to have worked too well, particularly the combination of the insistence on merely suggesting condition-free dialogue with Iran in combination with going to Cairo and publicly TL’ing International Islamism, among other reason to come to terms with the fact that that it was going to stick around, whether or not it deserved to. Instead, the pseudo-theofascist Persia has responded to his overtures by amping up their misbehaviors. Complicating the situation—and further diminishing any reason for cooperation on anyone’s part with the regime—is the Iranian populace’ reaction to the recent stolen election. Ironically, as statements issued from people involved with the “negotiations” indicate, the Administration realizes its “cooperate” move is empty, but the increasingly fear the consequences of a “defect” move, even thought the consequences of delaying such a move increase the cost of its execution [and the likelihood of an Israeli attack].

[Which, to be fair, I would lay the lion’s share of the blame at the feet of the previous Administration for invading the wrong country. As I’ve said here repeatedly, I would agree with everything Dick Cheney has said about our conduct of the War on Terror—IF we had invaded Iran instead of Iraq. Instead, the invasion and subsequent messes allowed for the possibility that the “game” could be reset to “start” long enough for the incoming Administration to at least present ab initio a salient case for “cooperation”.]

Re the right, events [thankfully] beyond their control may be shaping up in a way that start the political winds blowing at least mildly in their direction...IF they manage to quelch their penchant for dontopedalogy for five minutes. [As prominent examples—and for later discussion—Glenn Beck misreads history, Sarah Palin continues to proudly display that she doesn’t know history, and Rush Limbaugh is laughing all the way to the bank.] In addition to the Iran corner he has backed himself into, Obama has overreached spectacularly on health care to the point that his own party has forced him to abandon the “public option”, at least publicly. Yet the Right continues to assume that stoking its most reactionary and least savory elements will increase the chances of Democrats self-immolation; instead, it allows bankrupt progressive policy to appear at least somewhat credible. If the Republicans were smart, they’d realize that self-destruction is in Democratic DNA and will show up sooner or later.

Failing that, maybe they should give the Israelis a call.