Lower taxes

. . . ?

I tried this with my group of conservative lawyer friends. They came up with nothing. I know of not a single thing conservatives have been right about. And no lower taxes isn’t one of them.

it'd be cool if conservatives advocated for lower taxes for working people but they seem to be focused on lowering taxes for billionaires

so i guess my answer to the OP is: nothing

Lower taxes is only correct in your mind if you're a rich narcissist.

Though I will add a few.
Gov't is spending too much money--except they're going to cut the wrong things all for more money for rich people.
left can be stupid
too many regulations--except they're cutting the wrong ones like don't dump **** into rivers and lakes and not shooting hibernating bears and hey maybe don't **** up the whole planet. Nope, those things prevent money now so **** that. The real ones to cut are the ones that prevent competition but those guys paid for those laws so that'll never happen.

There's lots of that.

I’m quite liberal, but historically philosophies about free trade is something that pre-Trump conservatives probably got right compared to many liberals.

Also obviously a touchy area, but I think liberals have sometimes been to quick to blindly support some union related issues that are harmful to people entering the workplace or favor seniority over skill/productivity.

I thought this was an interesting question so I thought for like 30 minutes and this is literally all I could come up with.

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters"

You talked to an educated group of conservatives and they couldn't come up with anything they are right about?

Wut

Well. I shouldn’t say they came up with nothing. They said they were right about the cake baking case. And then it was just another group of things they “won” not what they were right about. Like I got “gorsuch” as an answer.

The corporate tax reform portion of the last tax reform bill was a stealth consensus bill that almost everyone with 10+ years in Congress contributed at some point. Tax base erosion was a thing.

It was however dead wrong to cut individual tax rates, especially for top earners. A tax hike in the top brackets was probably justified because top earners probably enjoy more of the benefits of corporate tax cuts/reforms. A hike in capital gains tax was probably also justified and would be a very targeted way to compensate for lower effective corp tax rates.

They are probably right to fight renewable energy subsidies. They are dead wrong in denying global warming and protecting coal. They will probably be wrong about protecting renewable subsidies soon.

They were right that trade war with China was inevitable to force China to play fair. They are wrong to trust Trump to wage that trade war. Trump will sell all of us out if he could sell another floor of his Golden Phallace Trump Tower to some random Chinese guy.

Basically, even when they are right, they find a way to get it wrong.

Another thing that's actually kind of hilarious... even when they got Romneycare basically right, they decide to get it wrong by opposing Obamacare.

GJGE

They're right about the Clintons being terrible.

They were right to think Kanye West was a moron in 2005.

I guess Reagan was right to grant amnesty to undocumented immigrants, but idk if that was a "conservative" position then, and it certainly isn't now.

That racism is popular and wins elections.

1. Cap And Trade was a brilliant free-market solution to the acid rain crisis.

2. Obamacare, a.k.a. Romneycare (though socialized healthcare would be better, so nevermind).

That rich people will realize that electing them is worth the investment.

That CNN is mostly total garbage.

That the left won't fight back.

Well for starters I'd say their media strategy is absolutely fantastic. They are ****ing killing it and everybody else is mad, but the truth is Fox News is ridiculously effective.

Oh yeah by the way they're not just utilizing Fox News. Look at the big commentators on CNN and MSNBC. A ton of the ones from MSNBC in particular are Bush and Bush Jr's war press. It doesn't get much more fascist than that yet here they are with a platform on all the "liberal" media channels.

Not a peep about protecting individual liberty against the tyranny of government… from conservative lawyers. Nothing wrong with that picture. That’s like conservative economists not mentioning deficit spending and our $20 trillion debt.

States rights. But rarely do they actually mean it and just use it as an excuse to discriminate against minorities and violate people's civil rights.

Cooley Law School?

They were right that if they blew up all the norms and started a no-holds-barred fight to the death to wrestle as much power away as possible, liberals would wait way too long to fight back.

As far as actual issues, most of what I would say has been said:

1. Balancing the budget (or at least coming closer than we do) - But they blow this by wanting to cut all the wrong spending.

2. Free markets are better in some areas, but not all - they blow this by wanting to let them handle everything.

3. Tax cuts as stimulus - but only temporarily during recessions (and offset by increases during economic growth), and not exclusively for the wealthy.

4. As far as a general concept, they're right that the government should do the minimal amount necessary to solve issues in the way that is in the best interest of the country overall. The problem is, they fail to logically define/apply each piece of that sentence. Like, I believe that, and I also believe single payer healthcare is the way to go. Sometimes, the minimal amount necessary to solve an issue is going all the way to the other end of the spectrum. But as a different example, I believe income inequality is a huge problem facing this country. I believe the government should do the minimal amount necessary to solve the issue in the best interest of the country - so, for example, I think increasing minimum wage is better than taxing CEO's at 100% for all income over $5 million and literally redistributing wealth or capping income at a certain amount. Those "solutions" seem horrible to me. However, in real life the GOP wants to do nothing and/or make it worse by just cutting taxes for the wealthy again and cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Most of the views above are why I sometimes say it's a shame we don't have a principled, logical conservative party in this country. Liberals aren't right about everything, and good faith discourse between bright minds on both ends of the spectrum is healthy for the country. Unfortunately, we are nowhere near having that.

^^^ They don't actually hold any of those positions though.

Nope, not the Republican Party. But those are conservative positions that I think are right. I just don't think we have a true conservative party here, and what most Americans mean when we say "conservative" in a political context is more about their identity and social beliefs.

How are conservatives better at wanting a balanced budget? They are much, much worse at in practice. So much so that growing the deficit should be a party plank.