GOP Prisoner’s Dilemma?

As I listen to how things went down with the bail fail this afternoon, I’m reminded of the game theory construct called the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This simulation is intended to demonstrate that in some situations the ideal outcome (cooperation) is consistently missed because individual parties perceive non-cooperation to be rational, ultimately ending in a poor outcome for everyone.

The reason I’m reminded of the prisoner’s dilemma, is that it feels like this happened to a bunch no-name GOP House members, probably junior ones. After the leadership of both parties supported the bill, it was expected that majorities of both parties would vote yes.

The problem is that individual members would love to vote against it, because the election is in 5 weeks and most of their constituents (today) don’t like the bill. The prisoner’s dilemma comes in because I think these members assumed the others would cooperate, but THEY, the defector, could run on “I voted against BAILING OUT WALL STREET!” in November. They all thought that, they all voted no, and here we are.