This news and research won’t be a surprise to any of you who are activists and otherwise politically engaged, but it might be to some who aren’t:
At least if recent research is to be believed, political activism, no matter the cause, seems to make people happy – even if they don’t win an election or triumph in a ballot initiative. Psychologists curious about what fuels human happiness have looked at political engagement and political activism, and they’ve found that it provides people with a sense of empowerment, of community, of freedom, and of transcendence. Political activists, in other words, are all happy warriors.
(Of course this doesn’t mention how self-selecting this might be, either.)