Sometimes there are too many regulations. When corporations get big and powerful, sometimes they push for regulations that will make it harder for their competitors.
Immigration isn’t always well managed. Often corporations will try to bring in immigrants so that they can avoid paying non-immigrants a higher wage. Illegal immigrants should be deported (but the companies that employ them should be heavily fined too).
Drugs are bad, m’kay? Mexico’s issues with narcos terrorizing them, destabilizing their government, etc. is driven by the demand for drugs from the US. It’s true that when Americans are buying illegal drugs, they’re often funding these narcos.
Freedom of speech. This is normally something that is more of a conservative value. The left is typically more willing to say certain points of view shouldn’t be heard.
There is waste, fraud and abuse in the government. An occasional house cleaning is a good idea. But, it was Al Gore who did it the right way. DOGE was a clusterfuck.
Think of the Children! Sometimes the world moves too quickly, and it has a bad effect on kids. Take, for example, kids getting addicted to their cell phones and social media, or kids using ChatGPT to cheat. Raising kids in a more traditional way while we figure out the effect of these new-fangled technologies might be smart.
Chyna. The west really should have been harsher with China. China didn’t respect IP rules with respect to US patents and trade secrets. China’s government continues to promote and back certain companies. The “de minimis” rule was awful and really needed to be fixed.
What makes this hard to answer is that conservatives and liberals have flipped on a number of issues over the past decade or so. In Ye Olde Days, the left wing was protectionist because labour unions were strong. It was the conservatives that were pro free-trade, etc. Then the neo-liberals were pro-free trade, and the conservatives have become protectionist. Protecting nature has shifted back and forth as a conservative or liberal value. The left used to be skeptical about big business, but then it was the right who was trying to regulate the Silicon Valley companies, while the left defended them, and now the bosses in Silicon Valley are going hard right. The right used to be much more pro-immigrant because it was good for business, while the unions on the left opposed it. Now the right is anti-immigrant and the left is pro-immigrant. The right used to be the pro-war party, while the left was anti-war. Now the right is isolationist and against getting involved in military things overseas, and it’s the left who wants to continue working with allies and intervening to protect vulnerable countries like Ukraine or vulnerable minorities who are being persecuted. (Both parties are terrible on Israel and Gaza). The right used to have freedom of speech as a core value, and it was the left who thought some people shouldn’t have a platform and shouldn’t have their views heard. Now it’s the right who wants to censor everything and the left defending free speech.
Your idea that conservatives generally are against government waste is an issue that I think conservatives are right on. Whether they’ve ever implemented it well (like you mentioned), or whether they apply it sanely (like military vs. healthcare)… None of that matters since I was talking about the issue itself. So, I think this is an almost unanimously held conservative belief that is correct.
I was originally going to take issue with some of your other points (and had actually written quite a few things), but the challenge was to give me one issue that conservatives are correct, and you’ve done that.
Thanks. It’s hard because there’s what conservatives say vs. what they do. They always talk about being the financially responsible side, and lowering the debt. But, when they actually govern what they tend to do is lower taxes and not touch spending causing the debt to balloon. So, they identified an actual problem, but they never actually solve it.
That and trying to figure out what is actually a conservative view these days makes it really hard to pin down anything they’re correct on. But, I tried.
What makes this hard to answer is that conservatives and liberals have flipped on a number of issues over the past decade or so. In Ye Olde Days, the left wing was protectionist because labour unions were strong. It was the conservatives that were pro free-trade, etc. Then the neo-liberals were pro-free trade, and the conservatives have become protectionist. Protecting nature has shifted back and forth as a conservative or liberal value. The left used to be skeptical about big business, but then it was the right who was trying to regulate the Silicon Valley companies, while the left defended them, and now the bosses in Silicon Valley are going hard right. The right used to be much more pro-immigrant because it was good for business, while the unions on the left opposed it. Now the right is anti-immigrant and the left is pro-immigrant. The right used to be the pro-war party, while the left was anti-war. Now the right is isolationist and against getting involved in military things overseas, and it’s the left who wants to continue working with allies and intervening to protect vulnerable countries like Ukraine or vulnerable minorities who are being persecuted. (Both parties are terrible on Israel and Gaza). The right used to have freedom of speech as a core value, and it was the left who thought some people shouldn’t have a platform and shouldn’t have their views heard. Now it’s the right who wants to censor everything and the left defending free speech.
Your idea that conservatives generally are against government waste is an issue that I think conservatives are right on. Whether they’ve ever implemented it well (like you mentioned), or whether they apply it sanely (like military vs. healthcare)… None of that matters since I was talking about the issue itself. So, I think this is an almost unanimously held conservative belief that is correct.
I was originally going to take issue with some of your other points (and had actually written quite a few things), but the challenge was to give me one issue that conservatives are correct, and you’ve done that.
Thanks. It’s hard because there’s what conservatives say vs. what they do. They always talk about being the financially responsible side, and lowering the debt. But, when they actually govern what they tend to do is lower taxes and not touch spending causing the debt to balloon. So, they identified an actual problem, but they never actually solve it.
That and trying to figure out what is actually a conservative view these days makes it really hard to pin down anything they’re correct on. But, I tried.