Have you hugged a liberal today?

Question

Have you hugged a liberal today?

Some 45% of all Republicans report being very happy, compared with just 30% of Democrats and 29% of independents. This finding has also been around a long time; Republicans have been happier than Democrats every year since the General Social Survey began taking its measurements in 1972. Pew surveys since 1991 also show a partisan gap on happiness; the current 16 percentage point gap is among the largest in Pew surveys, rivaled only by a 17 point gap in February 2003.
Could it be that Republicans are so much happier now because their party controls all the levers of federal power? Not likely. Since 1972, the GOP happiness edge over Democrats has ebbed and flowed in a pattern that appears unrelated to which party is in political power.
For example, Republicans had up to a 10 and 11 percentage point happiness edge over Democrats in various years of both the Carter and Clinton presidencies, and as small as a three and five percentage point edge in various years of the Reagan and first Bush presidencies. Also, we should explain here a bit about how our survey questionnaire was constructed. The question about happiness was posed at the very beginning of the interview, while the question about political affiliation was posed at the back end, along with questions about demographic traits. So respondents were not cued to consider their happiness through the frame of partisan politics. This question is about happiness; it is not a question about happiness with partisan outcomes.
Of course, there's a more obvious explanation for the Republicans' happiness edge. Republicans tend to have more money than Democrats, and -- as we've already discovered -- people who have more money tend to be happier.
But even this explanation only goes so far. If one controls for household income, Republicans still hold a significant edge: that is, poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats; middle-income Republicans are happier than middle-income Democrats, and rich Republicans are happier than rich Democrats.
Might ideology be the key? It's true that conservatives, who are more likely to be Republican, are happier than liberals, who are more likely to be Democrats. But even controlling for this ideological factor, a significant partisan gap remains. Conservative Republicans are happier than conservative Democrats, and moderate/liberal Republicans are happier than liberal Democrats. Hmmm, what other factors might be at play? Well, there's always...
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-h...

Answer 1

I don't hug ideologues, the dry cleaner can never get all the sap out.

Answer 2

Strange how all the neocons who have offered answers are so full of anger, yet they claim happiness...I guess the difference would be that liberals dislike bigotry and violence and so we are less happy since we have to live amongst hate-filled bigoted neocons who talk about what sorts of harm they would inflict on liberals....
I suppose Republicans are happier because they happily embrace the ugliness in themselves...

Answer 3

yes, self-love makes me happy. =)

I think it's possible that we liberals tend to experience growing pains. We grow because we're investing time, energy, and work to solving, addressing, and helping with solutions. We grow because every attempt to be inclusive and to extend compassion is a lesson in practicing what you preach. In living your beliefs with ACTION.

Conservatives do it by letting the strict father decide everything for them. Relieves a lot of responsibility --- and thinking.

A conservative worldview:
- The world is a dangerous, difficult place.
- Competition sorts out winners and losers. Winners deserve to win, losers deserve to lose. This is the moral order.
- Morality and success are linked through discipline.

Answer 4

Ask yourself if you are happy, and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat, not happiness, but some end external to it, as the purpose of life.

John Stewart Mill
Economist and Philosopher

Answer 5

I was thinking about it, until I realized that a liberal is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane, and smells like Cheetah. The thick haze of petuli drove me back. I'll try again next time I have a head cold.

Answer 6

Yeah...Instead of sitting pretty in front of your computer...go support your boy W and fight his war that you support so much! Oh wait...I forgot...You want everyone ELSE to fight the war you support. If you were told you were going to Iraq, you would be outside of the White House protesting this war faster than you would casting a ballot for a republican!

Answer 7

No, I don't touch liberals.
The Reason Republicans are Happier than Democrats is simple:
Democrats either work for the Government, or are on Welfare.
Government Workers and Welfare people all have their hands out and Hate Everyone and Everything.

(I should note that by "Welfare People", I am referring to the young & healthy who Refuse To Work. The Democrats should get off Welfare so people who really need it and deserve it, could get more.)

Answer 8

specific I surely have - the two one in all my daughters. we are very happy and have an superb existence. I have been given a house depot present card from one, and the artist gave me a eye-catching charcoal rendering of a cat sound asleep.

Answer 9

Just proves, once again, that Republicans lie more than any other political party.

Answer 10

Of course Republicans are happier, ignorance is bliss.

Answer 11

So why all the war and violence?