Our Crabbiness is Keeping Us Down

The Problem with Zero-Sum Politics

It’s a phenomenon long known to fisherman. When trapped in a barrel, rather than cooperating to escape, crabs expend their energy sabotaging their fellow captives, repeatedly pulling them down and thus ensuring the group’s eventual demise. So prevalent is the behavior that these prisoners require neither lock nor lid to ensure their continued incarceration. Instead, they seem perfectly willing to police and imprison themselves. This counterproductive (and ultimately self-defeating) philosophy has often been summarized as “if I can’t have it, neither can you,” and it is hardly unique to crustaceans. In fact, one might reasonably conclude that it has become the unofficial motto of the modern Republican Party.

(I should clarify. I don’t mean unofficial in the sense of casual or informal. Rather, I mean that its appeal seems to be limited to those not currently serving in government: unofficials, if you will. For, as should be obvious to all, those in power certainly seem to know how to make government work for them.)

For the past forty years, no matter the issue, Republican representatives have echoed the theme of Ronald Reagan’s inaugural address that “government is the problem.” And with that as their sole guiding principle, those in power have repeatedly sought to deregulate…