Newmark's Door

Washington Post article claims that the supposedly horrible contest for the Democratic presidential nomination illustrates "the tragedy of the commons":

Individuals embroiled in similar dilemmas find them impossible to solve on their own, because they are confronted by a Hobson's Choice: Act selfishly and cause collective disaster, or act altruistically and aid someone else who is acting selfishly. Either way, selfishness wins.

"The way the system is set up, the more-selfish person has a higher probability of winning," social psychologist W. Keith Campbell said of the Democratic primary. "You end up with the more narcissistic, belligerent candidate."

Yes, but this problem is well understood and usually groups of people evolve norms or establish institutions to address the problem. It's only because the Democratic Party has arrogantly continued to tinker endlessly with their nominating rules in pursuit of "fairness" that it faces this problem today.