Rapid op-ed refutations

It's not good to write back-to-back op-ed pieces with arguments that fall apart under scrutiny. Here's Arthur Brooks in the New York Times proclaiming that "Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals." Here's David Frum pointing out that this claim is based on misleading statistics. Now here's Arthur Brooks in the WSJ announcing that "America Already Is Europe," i.e. a social-welfare state like Spain. And here's Will Wilkinson in The Economist noting that too relies on misleading statistics. For my part, I'll add some puzzlement as to the intersection of Brooks' two arguments--if America already is Europe, shouldn't that give some boost to liberals' happiness levels compared to conservatives'?