It may be more fundamental than that, though I like your post. Perhaps the fundamental difference is that Republicans (conservatives) believe happiness comes from money. Whereas Progressives believe that happiness comes from collective action. The thing that everyone wants is to be happy.
This is a little outrageous. First of all, all people (including communists) love money and chase it with reckless abandonment. Most conservatives are not rich, not even close. If we describe conservatives as middle america then they are relatively just getting by. I would argue they care far more about God and family then money. While most of the elites on the coast are loaded. If we look at things like number of children per household and church attendance comparing the two, it would probably bare that out. Now, not saying that they don't care about money, simply saying they don't have much of it. A subtle difference but one none the less. One group is not better then the other. They just cluster together. Having large families is not terribly practical in San Francisco. It is in Ohio. And since there is a decent correlation between wealth and religion, it makes sense that religion is more common in say Wisconsin then NY. I always find it amusing when people on a website dedicated to financial pursuit of wealth via the pushing of buttons to lecture others on the collective good.

