America's nightmare is two feral parties

The Democrats might decide that playing by the rules has got them nowhere.

- Janan Ganesh

Had Ms Kamala Harris won the US election in November - and it was close, remember, despite the tone of the coverage since then - would Donald Trump have conceded defeat within 24 brisk hours? Would Republicans in Congress be preparing to certify the result in the new year? Would the party's voters accept her as the legitimate president when asked in polls? On all three counts, there is enough doubt that posing the questions doesn't seem exotic.

Without quite acknowledging it, American politics has arrived at an understanding. One side can ignore the rules of the game - to the point of challenging election outcomes without proof of fraud - and the other can't, or at least doesn't. In the language of the street, but also of game theory, the Democratic Party is the sucker. If it were one of the two detainees in the prisoner's dilemma, it would confess to a crime, the accomplice wouldn't, and jail would beckon for the former. The prisoner at least has the excuse of ignorance. Democrats are aware of being diddled.

This isn't tenable. The ultimate risk to the American republic is that Democrats give up their unilateral observance of basic norms. The system can survive, just about, one of the two main parties going feral. It can't survive both. And so the story isn't that US President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, having promised not to. The story is what far worse behaviours it might augur from the Democrats in future, given the incentives they face.