Most core Republican Party special interests, with a partial exception for some elements of the Religious Right, essentially believe in Social Darwinism. They heap high praise on "The Individual" because they usually are, as individuals, heaped high with special privileges. If not they are wealth groupie wannabes. Which is why Mike Huckabee meets with such disdain from the Republican establishment - he sometimes gives a nod toward right wing populism. The Republican establishment prefers an ideological argument that supports "every man for himself", since the members of their establishment start out with big advantages in that scenario. Even IF "a rising tide lifts all boats", the boatless eventually drown, but that is not a yacht owners problem, in a sink or swim world.

The living core of the Democratic Party though celebrates the common good, and our common humanity. It is the Democratic Party that strung America's social safety net to keep the less fortunate among us from falling through prosperity's cracks to shatter on the rocks below. And the Republican Party has never ceased their efforts to cut widening hole in that social safety net, stealing the twine that protects the least of us to tie down their own high privileges.