Written by Noah Carl.
The typical partisan (on any side of politics) talks and acts as if nothing would make him happier than for all his opponents to give up and for his vision to become permanently instantiated in policy. Ever indignant about his enemies’ desire to tear down everything that is good and pure, he wishes to convey that only total political victory would give him lasting fulfilment.
In most cases, I would argue, this is simply a delusion. I am not saying that he would experience no joy or satisfaction from achieving total political victory. I am saying, rather, that the happiness he experienced would be fleeting and short-lived.
Humans derive meaning from competing in groups. And it’s this competition — the struggle towards a shared goal as part of a group — that is the primary source of meaning for partisans. It is not the fact that the government’s policy program may eventually bear some resemblance to their own preferred set of policies.1