The Republican Party primary process is ironically an excellent example of a failure to solve coordination problem.
In the short term, it is in the self-interest of Republican candidates to act as bombastically as possible and dog whistle into megaphones. Whoever does this the loudest will end up galvanizing the base the most, and thus win the primary process. However, this also dooms the party on the national stage.
If the seventeen members of the clown car all stayed calm, they'd still get the dedicated R vote and maybe have a shot at turning enough centrists to their side. But if one person escalates, there's no incentive at that point for the others to not also escalate alongside them. Those who stay quiet and try to come off as reasonable adults get nothing and zero recognition if even one person pops off and sucks up all the oxygen, whereas those who pop off can still get attention and book deals even if they do lose the primary.
And the damage is proving to be residual over time, as now even the starting point of discourse is already close to the point where it cannot be pivoted back, and any sort of escalation already pushes it across the line.
