With what conservative positions are you ready to find common ground? [View All]

Thinking about all the conservatives who have recently broken with Bush -- including some who have shown up here at DU -- has gotten me wondering whether what we're seeing is a marriage of convenience for this election only, or if we'll be able to find common ground for a more general alliance in the future.

For my part, I generally hold strongly liberal positions -- but I'm also quite aware that many of the conservative critiques of liberalism are valid and that certain conservative values are worth maintaining. My problems with conservatism lie more in its short-range tactics (such as laissez-faire capitalism) than in its long-range goals (such as maximizing freedom for everyone.)

I'd like to lay out a few specific examples and encourage discussion of these and similar issues along the liberal/conservative divide:

1) Defense. The liberal side of me wants nothing more than a peaceful world and deeply believes that although a certain level of violence may be part of human nature, organized warfare is not. However, I also acknowledge that in a world of great economic inequalities, killing other people and taking their stuff is always going to be a temptation. So how do we maintain adequate military strength to protect ourselves but not be tempted to use that strength to bully others? How can we value those who are willing to lay down their lives to protect the rest of us without over-glamorizing the use of force?

2) Regulation. The conservatives are right that government regulation of business is expensive, time-consuming, and generally a pain in the butt -- but the abuses of employees, consumers, and the environment that occur in the absence of regulation are even worse. And bribing large corporations to do the right thing doesn't have a great record of success either. So are there alternative ways of protecting our people, our communities, and the natural world that don't require intrusive inspections or the filling out of forms in triplicate? Will greater computerization help? Is there some way to empower ordinary people to give them greater control over local businesses that would take government largely out of the equation?

3) Cultural issues. Let's face it -- our society is pretty tacky. The standards set by reality shows are not the standards we want our children to grow up with. But a reimposition of two thousand year old moral strictures is not the answer either. How do we haul our social values back out of the gutter without the old guilt-and-punishment trips? Would curtailing advertising (with its mind-control techniques based on sex and terror) be a good place to start?

4) Corporations. Speaking from the liberal side of the equation again, I believe that corporations are a large part of our problem -- that they are soulless, blood-sucking monsters that have to be brought under control and restored to their original purpose of serving the common good. Just as with copyright and patents, the goal should be to allow people enough of a profit to encourage them to undertake difficult or dangerous projects, but not to guarantee them the right to make money forever. The flu vaccine shortage is also raising questions about whether there are certain vital functions, like health care, that will never be adequately served by a profit-based system and may require a greater or lesser degree of government intervention. So is it possible to engage our conservative friends in a discussion about the place of the profit motive in a well-functioning society and whether there are areas where it simply does not belong?