Why the Angry Left Will Always be Angry

Democrats have won the presidency and both houses of congress. Should we expect that their reputation as angry liberals will change? Don’t count on it. It has been my observation that liberals are angry whether they are in power or not.

To determine if my perception of “angry liberals” was simply a stereotype, I decided to Google some phrases related to angry liberals and conservatives. I found that the phrase "angry conservative” rendered 7,330 occurrences. The expression “angry right” yielded 18,400 (eliminating the phrase “angry-right-now”). Googling the phrase "angry liberal" I discovered 27,200 references and 104,000 for "angry left.”

The liberals win on the angry scale -- 131,200 to 25,730.

Although one might think that any normal person would despise the caricature of being “perpetually angry,” in my web search I found that it wasn’t only conservatives who used that phrase -- many of the references were liberals who proudly claimed that characterization.

Did you know that there are web sites that sell “angry liberal” memorabilia. No kidding -- refrigerator magnets, T-shirts, and bumper stickers that say things like “Angry Left,” “Angry Liberal Bitch,” and various uses of profanity to describe their feelings about conservatives. There are even handbooks for angry liberals. Check out twoangryliberals.com. Liberals are angry and proud if it!

Liberal bloggers seem to wear anger as a badge of honor. You may need a bath later, but sample the R-rated writings at rudepundit.blogspot.com, or visit eschatonblog.com, or read the diatribes of Maryscott O'Connor on myleftwing.com. She describes herself as “insane with rage and grief” and portrays her writings as "One long, sustained scream."[1] For the news in unveiled liberal anger visit DailyKos.com or HuffingtonPost.com. The tone of the news reports as well as the reader comments will raise the hair on the back of your neck. Millions of liberals drink from the waters at these sites.

If you study liberal anger you will notice that liberals are most angry when confronted for their beliefs, attitudes, or actions. They will typically respond by accusing their confronter of being mean spirited, hateful, or intolerant.

Take the case of CNN business reporter Ali Velshi who, on January 29, assailed Rush Limbaugh for his proposed stimulus package. On his radio show Limbaugh responded, defending the wisdom of his plan and confronting Velshi for his misrepresentations and personal attack: “Mr. Velshi, you are incompetent. You are a disservice to your business, except you fit right in at CNN, disinformation, character assaults.”  In return, CNN reporter Campbell Brown castigated Limbaugh for his response to the attacks. She accused Limbaugh of “histrionics” and ”name-calling,” of ”nasty rhetoric” and ”useless noise.” She inferred Limbaugh was mean and belittled his solutions when she said, it was "...time to put the meanness behind us and focus on real dialogue and real solutions...” She did the very thing of which she accused Rush Limbaugh -- used inflammatory and accusing words in an attack.

If you want to make a liberal angry and attack you -- confront or expose him or her.

Interestingly enough, liberals don’t like to be told they are angry. They will tell you that they are angry, and they will manifest indignance and outrage in press conferences as they castigate some conservative policy or belief, but don’t you accuse them of being angry. They’ll return the accusation. Liberal author, S. T. Joshi, wrote an entire book to accuse conservatives of being the angry ones.

The reason that it is impossible to disagree with liberals without evoking their fury is that they already blame you for their anger. They see themselves as victims who are only upset because of you. In classic victim style they don’t hold themselves responsible for their responses -- they hold you responsible. They sincerely believe that their anger and misery is your fault -- you are to blame for that which is in their power to control.

Such victim thinking reminds me of the words of Malachy McCourt, “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

Liberals resent conservatives, but they only hurt themselves with their bitterness. As long as they disavow responsibility for their poor ability to handle disagreement, they will lack the happiness and security enjoyed by conservatives.

In case you have never read the research, conservatives do tend to be happier in life than both liberals and independents. According to a series of Gallup polls over the years, Republicans consistently rate happier than Democrats--as much as twelve percent higher,[2] even when liberals are in power.

Conservatives also feel significantly better about their mental health than liberals, with fifty-eight percent of Republicans rating it as excellent, compared with only thirty-eight percent of Democrats.[3] It only follows that conservatives are happier in the area of sex and romance. In 2004, after one of the most comprehensive sex surveys in decades, the ABC News polling unit found that on average, Republicans rate their sexual happiness nine to ten percent higher than Democrats.[4]

As you can see, liberals are not as happy, mentally stable, or as sexually satisfied as conservatives. The logical conclusion is that they are closer to the opposite -- depression and anger. Both emotions leave people irritable or on edge.

This brings me back to my thesis: although liberals now hold all the federal power seats, we can expect that they will be as angry as ever. When they weren’t in power they were angry with the conservatives who were in power. And now that they are in power they will remain offended at the conservatives who simply do not agree with their view of government or liberty. This passion-orientation is the fiber of the liberal worldview.

As I discuss in my book Born Liberal Raised Right, the worldview we hold as adults generally results from our upbringing. If we are consistently angry when we do not get our way or when others do not agree with us, it is because we have been raised to have an over-exalted sense of self-importance -- we think too highly of ourselves and cannot tolerate those who resist us. The greater our sense of self-importance, the greater our desire to have what we want, and the greater intolerance we feel towards anyone who threatens to deprive us of what we want. The same passions that drive us to gratify ourselves, proportionately fuel our anger.

Bottom line, liberals will always be angry because their passions govern them more than they govern their passions.

If you want to know more, get my book.