In any case, it's a fine arena for personal growth - shall we say because the political process forces people to confront that the essence of our democracy is rooted in winning and losing. A lot of people don't like to confront that. It means dealing with conflict and risk. It brings out all manner of human behavior from the slime to the sublime. Politics is also an arena where people are confronted with demonstrating the content of their character.
Conflicts require making choices and determining winners and losers.
No one likes to admit this. We like to live in the psychologically safer world that everything can be win, win, win. But this is just a form of denial. I'm not saying there aren't cases where all parties can win, but this is not the norm. And it is never the case in land-use choices, where things are permanently destroyed or saved.