If an honest , independent political historian were to go down the list and rank each major party by how well they have helped America achieve ideals - ideals that were carefully laid out in the Constitution , the Declaration of Independence , and the Federalist Papers - it would be shown that democrats like Obama have done the hard work of elevating people to live up to the ideals while republicans like McCain and Bush - and their lieutenants like Rove , Black , Atwater , et al - have divided Americans against each other , divided us from our allied , played to people 's fears and narrowly equated patriotism with war mongering .