In politics, the liberal focus on influencing government and controlling the status of other people allows the left to claim the mantle of superior compassion. Because leftists talk more about the welfare of strangers, they portray themselves as more idealistic and more concerned with humanity at large. By contrast, the conservative emphasis on private institutions – businesses, families, churches – is often derided as selfish and insular.

The left enjoys a second built-in political advantage: because of its emphasis on the importance of public life and governmental activism, the most ambitious and gifted people in the progressive community will often choose politics as a higher calling. Conservatives, with their preoccupation with the private sector, will much more likely choose to emphasize building families, businesses or communities rather than constructing electoral careers.

This means that those observers who perceive superior political ability on the liberal side of the spectrum are probably correct. Moreover, it’s a structural imbalance, and not a temporary aberration – a reflection of the fact that the left sees government as a source of enlightenment and accomplishment, while the right views government as a locus of corruption and potential tyranny. It’s not surprising that those who look on bureaucracy and political power most favorably will choose disproportionately to involve themselves in those pursuits.

Conservatives, meanwhile, enjoy a mirror-image structural advantage when it comes to personal happiness. It is obviously much easier to control your own circumstances than to secure the welfare of society at large. It’s inherently more possible and more satisfying to influence yourself and your intimates than to impact millions upon millions of utter strangers.

In other words, it’s easier to change yourself than to change the world. It’s therefore only logical that conservatives would report far higher levels of contentment and personal happiness than liberals, according to Syracuse University’s Arthur Brooks (author of “Gross National Happiness”), and everyone else who’s studied the subject.

Both conservatives and liberals pursue power, but the left wants to influence other people and society at large while right-wingers want enhanced control over their personal circumstances. That contrast may give liberals the edge in many political scraps, but conservatives will still have a better and more satisfying time in the process.