The psychology of political parties

A great blog post from earlier this year discusses potential psychological roots behind extreme partisan politics. The title itself summarizes the argument: "Are liberals driven by a desire for novel pleasure and conservatives by fear of pain?" Its an interesting argument with some compelling research to back it up. The author clearly doesn't like the current state of partisan politics in the US (who does?) He argues that such extreme rhetoric on both sides really discredits the whole political process. Both extreme fear and affinity for change will lead us to make bad decisions. I also like the Buddhist plug at the end.