I love your formulation of the difference between Republicans and Democrats.  I've been using a different but compatible one:

The US elites practice Aztec Capitalism.  Periodically, the Market God (Huizliopotchtli) demands mass human sacrifice, and the Fed responds by engineering unemployment (and the attendant disease and suicide).  At this point, a debate breaks out among the elites.

The Dems and liberals argue for adminstering anesthesia before marching the poor and the dark-skinned proles up to the sacrificial slabs, e.g. unemployment assistance, minimal health care, additional funds for education.  They are compassionate and prudent.  And they believe that anesthesia will make the sacrifices and the sacrifice system smoother and more sustainable.

The Repubs respond with alarm and, recently, derision.      The Market God is heartless towards Losers, so anesthesia is unnecessary and perhaps offensive to him - quite risky as the sacrifice might be less effective.  Besides, it eliminates some of the fun.  Remember, Aquinas famously argued in Summa Theologica that one of the pleasures of the Saints in Heaven was watching the torment of the damned in Hell.

No one seriously questions the need for cruelty - only whether it should be patent or not.