Perhaps both can be right?

P1: Freedom is a fundamental human right. Without democracy we cannot have real freedom. We should all have equal political rights in open elections.  Without democracy the government does not have legitimacy.  The government can and will abuse its power.  P2: Peaceful tactics have been proven not to work.  We must resort to extreme, even violent, methods now.  P1 represents a group who share a set of beliefs (similar to liberals).  P2 is a subset of P1 who are adopting a set of violent actions to pursue their beliefs. 

E1: Order is most important. People must respect established authority. Children must respect their parents.  Students must respect their teachers.  Citizens must respect the police and the government. Freedom and democracy are also important but order is the foundation.  E2: You must never use violent action even when you are fighting for freedom and democracy.  We must use greater force to suppress violent actions before we can talk about democracy.  E1 represents another group who share another set of beliefs (similar to conservatives).  E2 is a subset of E1 who are adopting a set of violent actions to pursue their beliefs. 

Let us ignore, for the moment, those selfish bastards who are only interested in preserving their own power.  Let us also put aside, for the moment P2 and E2 who are adopting violent tactics.  Let us just examine the beliefs of P1 and E1.  

Who is right?   If one side is right then the other side must be wrong?  Is there only one possible right side?  Is it possible there is actually a significant amount of shared values between P1 and E1?   Is it possible that the difference between the two may be more of a degree of importance each side puts on a shared set of values, rather than having fundamentally opposing values?

Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Righteous Mind - Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion” proposes that morality can be classified into a number of major dimensions.   All moral people believe that (1) care (for people) is good, (causing) harm (to people) is bad; (2) liberty is good, oppression is bad; (3) fairness is good, cheating is bad; (4) loyalty is good, betrayal is bad; (5) (respect for) authority is good, subversion is bad; (6) (respect for) sanctity is good, degradation is bad.   

Every moral person believes in these values.  Except selfish bastards.  But we agree to put them aside for the moment.  The major difference among major groups of people is a matter of emphasis among these major values.   

Liberals, in general, stress more on care, liberty and fairness.  

Conservatives, on the other hand, stress more on loyalty, authority and sanctity. 

Fundamentally, both sides believe in the same things.  Each group, however, places different emphasis on some of these values.   Hence the two groups P1 and E1 may be closer to each other than it appears - assuming that we can take violence out of the picture.  

Can we please put the violence aside so that we can work on the common ground? Instead of fighting each other to death?