Are there any conservative policies that were actually good?

Great Debates
1

I honestly cannot agree with any legislation passed by conservatives, or policy upheld by conservatives. Does anyone got a few examples of how conservatives may somehow be beneficial to society? I could rant for days about how conservatives literally destroy society and halt progress, but there has to be some sort of reasonable logic behind conservative views.

There must be something they have proposed that is half decent. Maybe upholding the constitution counts as a conservative policy? It’s a stretch, but that’s all I can think of.

2

Sometimes taxes actually are too high. In those cases, it’s good policy to lower them to an appropriate level – I think the 60s tax cut for the highest bracket from (IIRC) in the 90s to around 60% was appropriate, and maybe it’s reasonable to consider it conservative.

3

As a “conservative policy”, fiscal responsibility is a good idea. In practice, conservatives are not very good at implementing it.

4

The distinction between conservative policy and liberal policy is quite fluid and will change over time. So what was liberal a while ago can be considered conservative now. I’ll give you two examples.

Back in 1960 in a bid to charge up the economy JFK lowered taxes with a somewhat famous statement of “A rising tide lifts all boats”. Now to liberals and progressives that is anathema.

Also back in the day from the 1930’s till perhaps about 1990 or so same time period it was liberals who supported and protested for free speech. No suppression of speech of any kind, even the abhorrent kind. That is no longer true. Liberals and progresses only want approved speech for those they approve of. Any other kind of speech should be oppressed.

As for me I support low taxes, and free speech for all. I suspect you would now in 2016 call these conservative policies. They once were liberal and I supported them, they now are conservative and I support both now.

5

I recognize that this is a popular right-wing strawman of the left, but this is not remotely true.

6

They passed the bill funding NASA scientific research and space exploration.

7

Calling someone out publically for racist, sexist, or homophobic speech is not the same thing as demanding suppression of free speech. No liberal or progressive wants the government to censor speech, or jail or fine anyone for saying whatever might pop into their heads.

There’s a difference between saying someone is a jerk, and saying someone should be behind bars.

8

Wrong, and a repeated wrong. “Lowering taxes” isn’t policy, it’s a mantra. There are “good” tax rates that balance stimulus and revenue – higher than that is too high (and depresses economic activity), and lower than that is too low (brings in too little revenue without stimulating significant additional investment and spending). It’s reasonable to disagree on what these “good” tax rates are. It’s not reasonable to say you always support lowering taxes – that’s not even a conservative position… it’s a magic position.

In the 60s JFK lowered taxes because they were too high, not because lowering taxes is magic and always helps.

Also bullshit. Both sides have extremists who oppose certain types of free speech – liberals tend to poll higher on supporting suppression of hateful speech, while conservatives poll higher on supporting suppression of blasphemous or obscene speech. A lot more conservatives than liberals want to ban pornography, and a lot more conservatives than liberals want to prevent Satanists from erecting religious displays next to Christian displays on public grounds.

9
  1. He didn’t originate the phrase-one of his speechwriters borrowed it from a New England regional chamber of commerce slogan.
  2. It had nothing to do with the lowering of taxes. He said it in response to criticism that a dam project he was inaugurating was a pork barrel project.
10

An interesting thread question. Some of the best legislation has come about via good-spirited compromise; e.g. the Clean Air Act.

While rejecting any comprehensive health-care solution, some of the earlier GOP stopgaps (like Health Savings Accounts) might have made sense at least as band-aids.

Some of the “left-wing anti-business” programs (Sarbanes–Oxley, Dodd-Frank) go way too far, and it is the GOP that pushes to create exemptions at least for small businesses.

The GOP has useful input to offer on education matters. They are pushing for easier visas for foreigners who graduate from American Universities.

I support tort reform; in fact I might go much farther than the GOP goes. However I don’t pretend this is a panacea for reducing healthcare costs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

But please let’s keep the strawmen and partisan hyperbole to a minimum here.

I was so astounded by this response that I spent my only-once-every-five-minutes search on David’s recent posts. Here’s just one:

Note the cutesy “equation” implied
Libs & Progressives ~= Democrats ~= KKK supporters

11

This depends on how you define conservative. Traditionalists will invariably turn out to be wrong in the sense that progress will not be halted. Conservatives who believe in slow progress to avoid unintended consequences will invariably turn out to be right. Very few politicians actually hold strong sensible principles though, so whatever political philosophy they claim to follow they’ll usually end up supporting something stupid to get elected and to collect [del]bribes[/del] campaign contributions.

12

I am offended by your micro-aggression in my safe zone. Consider this a “trigger warning”.

13

There have certainly been good laws and actions instigated or carried out by Republican presidents and other politicians; even Nixon had China. Not sure whether those count as “conservative policies” though.

14

By being offended by my offensiveness, clearly you’re the one being offensive here.

15

I can think of two, cites available on demand:

  1. Opposition to public housing.

  2. Support for English-only education.

16

Whether some policies are good or bad is impossible to get everyone to agree on. Banning abortion? Pro-lifers: “Yay!” Pro-choicers: “Nay!”

17

What about the students protesting against allowing certain speakers on campus?

Or this thread?

Or this Vox article?

18

Cites for the second one, please.

19

Rising tides raising all boats is a great idea - in theory.

In practice, it’s often less like a rising tide and more like a growing iceberg.

20

I wrote a post about it a few years ago that cited studies showing better outcomes from English-only, but now I can’t find that post; and reviewing current studies shows the opposite conclusion in the bulk of them. So, cheerfully withdrawn.