Let's not beat around the Bush and get straight to the point, the Republican concept is predicated and founded on the ideals of extreme personal selfishness.
Conversely, the hidden context behind the demonizing of Liberals/Progressives as "Communists" and "Socialists" is really an uninteneded compliment to an ideology of shared prosperity, willingness to be selfless and concerned for the fates of our fellow man.
If you go through most of the major ideals of the Republican party and get past the superficial "window dressing" they place on them, the singular focus on personal self-interest is clear:
Financial Selfishness: This is the central vortex of what it means to be a Republican today:
Tax Cuts: Heavily slanted towards the most wealthy, and unequally burdening the other 95% of working Americans. When Boehner/Cornyn/Cantor talk about the promotion of tax cuts, they conveniently ignore the $275billion in tax cuts in the Stimulus package-- because those cuts target the average American worker and small businesses. What they mean by "tax cuts" is purely focused on the wealthiest 5% of Americans.
Anti Social Programs: really the same conversation about financial selfishness, couched in the mostly false protests that "social programs are all failures". In fact, most social programs in American history have been utterly necessary, and has helped strengthened America as a whole. Yes there is beaurocratic waste, but it doesn't negate the need for social programs. Where would Obama be today if his Mom didn't have social program support?
Religious Selfishness: Why are the religious fundamentalists selfish? Because they base their ideology on the beliefe that the world and people around them should be FORCED to accept their personal choice of God and how a woman should deal with an unintended pregnancy. Ironically, it's lost on these same religious fundamentalists that they too have been allow to MAKE A CHOICE in what they believe. They are just too imminently "self-interested" to be capable of seeing someone else's point of view.
This and the Social Selfishness has also profoundly influenced the Bush foreign policy of demonizing entire swaths of the world's people as "evil" and target for decimation.
Social Selfishness: "This is my piece of dirt that my great-great-great-great grandaddy murdered a whole nation of Brown people for. And ain't no way in hell i'm letting a bunch of Brown/Yellow/Purple people live on it with me."
The Anti-Immigration rhetoric is just a thinly-veiled racist rant against the "huddled masses" who are yearning for a chance to pursue the American promise of liberty and prosperity. Sure there are valid conversations about a proper, legal, fair way for foreigners to earn their citizenship. But that's just the "window dressing" to make then seem rightous about this. Because the vary same anti-immigrantionists are perfectly fine paying Brown people a lower wage to clean their house, tend their lawns, and watch their kids.
Here we are in an undeniable crisis of generational significance, and the Republicans are incapable, UTTERLY incapable of putting aside petty political interests, monied interestes, to work for our common success. Their focus is solely on success for the very wealthiest, for the Rush Limbaugh/Sarah Palin racists, for the Pat Robertson/James Dobson zealots. And to hell with the majority of Americans who just made a clear call for change and fairness in American governance.
It's my personally belief that the greatest threat to American society today is the rampant culture of narcism and selfishness that is eating our society alive. It is everywhere, Liberals and Progressives. But it is incredible how this narcissistic fetish is so clearly embodied by the Republican party.
This is a disease that is trying to tear apart the very foundation of what makes America great.... "The United..."