Conflict is inevitable. Everybody cannot have everything they want. But a very simple principle is needed to manage conflict:
The loser of a conflict is not destroyed.
It seems simple and obvious. But often it is ignored.
Imagine what would happen if the loser of a sports event was then banned from ever competing again. Conflict in sporting events is intense, but rules are set up to reduce injuries. The loser gets another chance some day.
Of course many conflicts cause permanent damage to people. War is the ultimate example. But the conservative movement seems to want to punish anybody who does not come out on top. If you don't have health care, they don't care if you get sick or injured. If you lose your job, they think you deserve to be homeless. To me it sometimes looks like some conservatives want people to lose out in economic competition and be destroyed because it makes them feel superior. The phenomenon of job listings that exclude anyone who does not currently have a job makes loss of a job into a permanent black mark, which fits the current conservative mindset.
We cannot always avoid deadly conflict. If Hitler's Nazis invaded your country, there is no peaceful way to get rid of them. But the ideal to strive for is conflict that does not destroy the participants. The advantage of constitutional government is that political conflict does not destroy the loser. Just compare that to the vast number of civil wars, dynastic murders, and political killings and imprisonment in history.
We have a rich country (if the financial industry does not wreck it even more than they have). There is no reason why anyone should be hungry or homeless. There is plenty of reasons to compete without forcing some to be destitute. The principal of non-destructive conflict thus leads to social democracy. What the conservatives want is something like having the losers of a baseball game thrown out of the league.
The ideal of non-destructive conflict is good way to frame issues such as unemployment and health care that highlights just what is at stake for real people.