Originally posted by: Train
Originally posted by: Rainsford
Originally posted by: Train
Originally posted by: Rainsford
You're causation theory is retarded,
don't you know whay this forum was started? The explosion of political threads in OT is exactly why.
Indeed, but I was talking about your theory that being a Republican
makes you happier somehow.
I never said that, I was only offering an explanation of why republicans are happier, it could be that happier people tend to be republicans. Like I stated before, i think the dems attract the pessimists.
Fair enough, I might have been mistaken in what you were suggesting. However, the general point of this thread does seem to be be that some sort of political link exists in defining happiness. Not so much that happier people tend to be Republican, but that they tend to be happy
because of some of the characterstics that people believe defines the typical Republican.
but even if it was true, it's not really a valid comparison. After all, the Republicans had a lot less to be pissed about under Clinton than the Dems do under Bush.
thats an opinion
Bonus points for our local Marine

Indeed it is an opinion, but like so much of this thread, I'm simply offering alternative explanations to your explanation of the results. It is my opinion, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.
I've got enough alcohol in me to let this one slide
What was wrong with that? I must have missed something there...
At the very least, Republicans under Clinton had at least some control of congress, Dems today have virtually no control over any part of the government process.
regardless, see my post above, this ties to wether or not you want the govt to take care of you.
You make an interesting point, but two questions I have. First, the study was not (as far as I can tell) done about stereotypical liberals and conservatives, it was about Republicans and Democrats,
That is correct, the article stated they controlled for that as well, and the results were still the same, liberal reps were happier than liberal dems and consv reps were happier than consv dems
Doesn't that DISPROVE some of the political link. Many people, including yourself, have suggested this is about liberals vs conservatives, but the results seem to indicate that it is really about party affiliation. The stereotyical traits of liberals and conservatives have largely been used in this thread to "explain" why Republicand are happier than Dems, but if ideology is controlled for, that seems to make the argument much less sound.
two groups that I submit have identical expectations of what the government will do for them in terms of quantity,
I totally disagree here. While some of the societal goals can be very similar, I believe what each party believes the govt will do or be to get society there is very different.
their opinions only diverge when WHAT kind of intervention they expect. After all, there is very strong support for the Patriot Act, illegal wiretapping, etc, from the Republicans, things a real conservative of the type you describe would never support.
I disagree here as well, none of what you mention affects me, or many other republicans daily lives, therefore I dont consider it intervention. If I were making phone calls to Syrians each month, to be honest I'd feel better knowing the govt may drop in to see if anything is up.
Perhaps my "no true conservative" argument doesn't always work here, but that wasn't really my point. I was suggesting that conservatives and liberals both expect the government to do a rather large number of things. Both sides have good reasons, but the fact is that I'm not really sure either side can claim that they are the champions of small government. I'm sure you have a good reason for supporting the things I mentioned, but that isn't the same thing as supporting limited government.
And even if that wasn't true, I think most people (even the tough, self-reliant conservative breed of hearty men such as yourself

) are less independent than they think.
what part of independence am I missing?
In a country where gay people getting married is such as explosive issue, and peopel get their panties in a twist over what their kids are exposed to on TV, I'm not sure how self-reliant anyone really is.
not everyone toes the party line on every issue. Because some republicans are nanny staters (as are plenty of dems) And some are individualists, doesnt mean you can just generalize everyone into one and call them hypocrits. Thats like me saying all socialists are homosexuals, because all democrats are the same.
You're right, I shouldn't suggest that everyone fits a stereotype on either side, but my point was that the truly independent people seem to be pretty few and far between. My appologies if you fit into that catagory (how well do we really know people who we only see posting on the internet?), but I'm not sure the stereotype of the strong, independent Republicans and the nanny-state Democrats is really all that accurate. I only bring it up because that seemed to be your theory on why Republicans are happier than Dems, because they are more independent. I'm not saying NO Republicans are independent, I'm just saying I don't find them to be any more independent and self-reliant as a party than the Dems are. Individuals, certainly, on both sides...but taken as a group, I don't see a huge difference.
But I think the biggest factor here is the one nobody is talking about, Independents are much closer to the Dems than the Republicans.
uhhh c'mon, I think the last 6 or 7 elections would disagree. The reps took congress in 94 and have been maintaining or adding to thier lead ever since, even with all the dirt the dems have been able to sling, the reps still added seats in congress in 04.
While there are a lot of stereotypes about whiney liberals that you guys can dress up like reasonable analysis, I think getting the independents is somewhat more difficult and less easially explained by the typical talking points.
how did we get to this? Who's trying to get independents with talking points? i thought we were talking about a survey of dems and reps. I think you've had more beers than me and have wandered off the yellow line a tad.
Just enough beers to not explain things very well

. I wasn't talking about elections, I was talking about the survey of Dems and Reps. The various explanations about why the Reps are happier than the Dems seem to come from the typical stereotypes about each party. But the people who weren't in either catagory, the independents, had a happiness level somewhat closer to the Dems than the Reps. This tends to suggest there is something else at work than the explanations put forward so far would suggest. Independent voters are generally different from both Dems and Reps, so they don't really fit into the explanations put forward by some of the Republicans around here. If the Dems unhappiness is caused by them "wanting the government to do more for people", and the Reps happiness is caused by them "wanting people to do more for themselves" (your words), how do the Independents fit in? They have similar happiness results to the Dems, but probably don't fit the nanny-state stereotype.