They enrage Democrats and dishearten their Republican colleagues with their systematic obstruction — and they don’t give a rat’s ass about how others feel about it. Tea party politicians are on a crusade to shrink the state and are convinced that they’re right. At the end of the day, they’re a marginalized minority and they don’t get a lot done. So you’d think they’d be frustrated and unhappy.
Not so.
In fact, according to rigorous surveys conducted by both left and right-leaning political scientists, 48 percent of Americans that call themselves extremely conservative also say they are extremely happy — the surveys’ happiest respondents.
The other demographic that approaches this state of bliss? Extremely liberal Americans: 35 percent consider themselves extremely happy. This includes, of course, Americans that participated in the Occupy movements and those that are eternally disappointed by Democratic administrations’ timid reforms.
A World in Black and White
These extremist Republicans and Democrats have one thing in common: a clearly-defined adversary. They live in a world where there are good guys and bad guys, and consider themselves extremely happy to be one of the good guys.
Moderate Americans don’t have that luxury. They spend a lot of time trying to separate the wheat from the chaff in politics; at 26 percent, they’re the least “extremely happy” Americans.
If you’re a moderate and the extremism of a Republican senator like Ted Cruz angers you, don’t forget that while you’re seething, he’s probably sipping a martini.
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