A little more on partisanship and happiness

As many of my favorite blogs highlight interesting feedback they get from readers, I think I'm going to do the same to make me feel that I'm special just like TPM and Ezra Klein.  On the subject of partisanship and happiness reader (and excellent former student), JW writes:

Certainly the partisan disparity in happiness is partially indicative of the party makeup
and based on those characteristics (church attendance and marriage were two you mentioned) more so than Party ID.  However, I have a theory
of my own to explain a portion of the happiness disparity. I have no proof of this, but I believe a certain portion of people derive happiness from feeling like they are better than others.  In our capitalistic, money-first society, I think the variable of “better than” most resonates with income.  Thus, these people feel better
when they have more money than others, which is something I think connects well with the Republican Party.  Us Liberal Democrats and our desire for equity and equality are missing the happiness boat.  Again, I have absolutely no evidence to support this.

Interesting idea, but I think I might argue that pretty much all of us derive happiness from feeling better than others, its just not always about money.  What's the point of watching Wife Swap or Supernanny (not that I'm a regular viewer mind you, but I can't resist a few minutes here and there) if not to convince ourselves that we are so much better parents than the people featured on the show.  Still, I would bet Republicans derive more of their happiness from financial disparity.  There may even be some data on this somewhere.