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Results so far:
| The left | 54% | 216 votes | Total: 399 votes | |
| The right | 46% | 183 votes |
The left
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Add to FavoritesThe further to the left a person keeps their individual self, the happier they are.
Here is another unhappy email that I received from a conservative:
"Please do not email me again. I have read other articles that you have written and to be honest, we are completely different in every way possible. Most people that I know, have compared me to Anne Coulter. Yes, I am a Christian, right-wing conservative and proud of it! From what I have read, I can see that you are the type that I am fighting against! I just simply ask that you take me off of your email list, as I do not wish to correspond to liberal scum!
God bless,
(Name on file)
When I stopped laughing, I felt sorry for this person. If anyone else here is a Christian, please pray for her, and anyone to whom she compare. My Christ does not put up with false-witness or kicking people when they are down.
Did anyone ever notice how Anne Coulter finds so much to complain about in this world and especially this country? She must be the epitome of unhappy people, is there nothing good in her world? In addition, her unhappiness with the world is always because of someone else or some other group.
Anne Coulter, I consider the queen of ultra-conservative spin. Though it is a bit hard for me to figure if she is serious or just a misguided comedian. I certainly get a good, happy laugh at much of what she has to say.
Here is a young woman who has it all and enjoys so much calling anyone who looks a bit further into things a "liberal". An honest and worthy title made vulgar by, no less than a Conservative Candidate (or his speechwriter or maybe campaign manager). All it took was a bit of spin and an anxious American public.
Once upon a time, "liberal" meant someone who had interpreted the Constitution of the United States in a Liberal manner. Never so liberal, though, as the current Conservatives who take it so liberally that they want to write into the opposite of its full meaning, inequality to a section of the people of the United States. I wonder who will be the next section of people to go.
The Jewish went first in Germany. To the best of my knowledge, the Christians went first in old Russia.
Speaking of "Christians", when did being Christian become stoning those seen by conservatives as the least of God's children? It seems the Ultra Conservative Christian Right will always find someone to blame for the ills of their little perfect world. Most "Liberals" just look at them and think, "Ah, that's just the way some folks are."
Liberals just are not so quick to turn a molehill into a mountain so they can move it at the expense of someone else. I think that "liberals" understand that what one does to another must be repaid later. "What goes around comes around", they say with a laugh and a, "What's one to do, they have to have something to play with in life, even if it means tormenting someone else."
Liberals are definitely happier.
If ultra-conservative people had any sense of humor, they would realize how truly silly they can be.
One gets an email with my name as the sender. If one finds my articles offensive because they are "liberal", one would think they would delete, not open and read. Personally, I would not have opened it in the first place; there is a delete key if one looks for it.
From the subject line, this is obviously a reply to one of those ridiculous mass mailings. Yes, I do not just delete these mass mailing, I reply to them. Some people actually believe that garbage. Sometimes they are about Barack Obama being head of some secret underground Muslim cult. How he is out to overthrow the (corrupt no less) government and force everyone to bow to Mecca or something. Good grief, does anyone have some prime farm property in the Sahara to sell?
This one, however, was about how the children of those illegal aliens are eating breakfasts off food bars that outdo the breakfast bar at the Marriott and are calling our teachers dirty names. They too are trying to overthrow our government.
None of these emails ever tells us who is in the lead of the overthrow, the Obama people, the gays or the illegal aliens. What is it that Conservatives like about spreading fear anyway? Then pulling that "Christian" card to assure anyone who does not "tow-their-line" can be associated with Satan.
The woman who says I am the type she is fighting against decides to write fight and me (myself being the accumulation for all of her displeasure for the day). Apparently, Conservatives do not recognize that someone who would reply to a mass emailing does not have a "list". Nor do they realize that all they have to do is "block" the sender address. I cannot remove her from what is not there.
I did not write my reply to her, I wrote it for all those people (and I know some) who believe everything in those mass mailings.
The point is, she, like so many other conservatives cannot stand to be happy. When I get such a mass mailing that I disagree with, I reply. I laugh at the ridiculous mass mailing, and I reply to it.
Conservatives have little to say in answer to the replies, but they just have to fight somehow. They, like anyone without an intelligent answer, respond with "name calling" (you can almost hear them going "nah-nah-nah-nah-nah , I got you with that one).
I would rather be "liberal scum", and a follower of Jesus the Christ, than a self-righteous conservative spreading hatred in the name of Christ.
I suppose I should not be so hard on conservatives, I even like some of them. However, what can I say? A true "ultra conservative" may usually be unhappy unless they can shear the sheep but, they do keep their silver polished to a nice gloss.
Yes, liberals are much happier than conservatives are.
Learn more about this author, Duane Kuehn.
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The right
If it is ever possible to generalize about the happiness of any group of people, it would seem that Conservatives may have a belief system that could be associated with greater happiness.
Conservati ves are people who have faith in the power and capabilities of individuals. When people believe in themselves and in others, the world in which they live feels like a more positive place.
They're also people who look at what the nation is, recognize that there are flaws in how things are done, but generally believe that the nation is what it is as a result of a system that works. When people have a positive view of their nation, believe that "the system works" (or at least that it has worked since the time of nations' birth), and value the principles on which the nation was founded; they tend to feel more satisfied with, and proud of, their nation.
Conservatives remain very committed to those principles on which the nation was founded, to the point where many almost feel as if they have a responsibility to uphold, and preserve for the future, those principles. Whenever people feel connected to their history in that way they can feel they have a little more sense of purpose or connection to their country.
Conservative s see one of the biggest challenges as that of trying to limit the size of government, as well as its involvement and limitations on individual lives. The challenge of trying to limit a creeping, increasingly oppressive, over-sized government; is a formidable one. Still, with its base in a general belief in the people, this challenge is more likely to stir up awareness of strength and independence - rather than hopelessness and helplessness. A belief in stemming the creeping influence/involvemen t of government in the lives of the people can come from an awareness of the ways in which government actually destroys lives; but, again, this awareness doesn't come from a belief that people cannot manage without large government. It is, quite simply, less depressing to have faith in fellow human beings.
While this is, of course, a generalized picture of views, Liberals focus on what has not worked and on their belief that individuals cannot thrive without government's help. Liberals focus on the very real problems of the "have not's" and believe they cannot "have" without government intervention in some way. Those Liberals who are, themselves, "have not's", have seen that the often over-simplified Conservative concept of "just doing what one one needs to do to get out" doesn't always work for some people. These can be people who have tried to do all the right things, to no avail. Liberals who, themselves, can be counted among the affluent, often have the awareness that not everyone gets the "breaks" they got. Of course, too, wealthy Liberals can have a sense of responsibility to the less fortunate, but belief that only the government can help the less fortunate generally contributes to an acute awareness that "all is not fair" in this world (or nation) (which it most definitely is not). An aim to make things fair, however, can cause the people committed to that aim to be acutely aware of what is wrong in the nation, rather than what is right.
For Liberals, though, it isn't just a matter of trying to make things fair. Liberals focus on any number of problems in the country/world and believe government must eradicate them. Liberals want laws about bike helmets, trans fats, smoking, seatbelts, and cell phones in cars. Unlike Conservatives who, as part of their valuing the individual, see "diversity" as being about the mind and soul of the individual; Liberals favor laws establishing diversity, based on gender, race, and sexual orientation. People who see and respect others as individuals tend to be happier than those who see others only as a gender, race, or sexual identity. People who believe that everyone else needs government to help them in their lives are people who either feel superior to others (in which case they live in a world where few others can be admired as capable); or else people who count themselves among the less capable (in which case they are less likely to feel satisfied and happy in life).
None of this is to say that all Conservatives are happy with things just the way they are. Most Conservatives don't live in their own little world of happiness, oblivious to the struggles of the less fortunate. In fact, these days more and more of the less fortunate (or at least less wealthy) may be turning to Conservative thinking, now that Liberalism has morphed into something very different from what it was forty years ago. Just as Conservatives tend to suspect, it turns out that the non-wealthy (and even the low-income) Americans are aware of, and value, the promise of the individual and the principles on which this nation was founded.
Neither is it to say, however, that all Liberals are miserably unhappy, low-income people; or else "bleeding heart", guilty-ridden, wealthy people who never get to enjoy life.
It is simply to say that, whether Conservative or Liberal, all people are individuals. It's also to say, though, that people who see, respect, and value others as the capable individuals they are (or have the potential to be if government doesn't get in the way) are most likely, and generally, happier.
Learn more about this author, Lisa H Warren.
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