In a polarized America, can we consider thoughtfully, or will we rush to demonize, solutions from the middle? We’ll only know by putting forward what we believe are workable proposals and gauging the reaction. Here is my end-of-the-year collection of a few such suggestions.

Gun control. Different parts of the state, and of the country, have different situations regarding firearms. Families in farm country, far from a local sheriff’s office, need to protect themselves.  For city-dwellers, however, publicly carrying a firearm might present a greater risk of harm. So defer to rules set by counties and cities rather than state-wide approaches.

Minimum wages. When government increases the minimum wage, some workers lose their jobs. Employers automate. Suppose we didn’t make employers pay the higher wage, but used the general tax base to plus-up the wages of low salaried workers instead? Those workers would earn as much more as if we increased the minimum wage, and fewer would be laid off.  Low-income workers need a hand: it’s barely possible for a family to get by on a minimum wage. Expand the earned income tax credit instead of increasing the minimum wage.

Climate change. Both natural causes and human causes account for warming temperatures. The costs of eliminating the human causes rise astronomically as we approach the last cc of carbon dioxide or methane. There is nothing wrong with cost-benefit analysis. Avoid setting goals at zero and include remediation as well as prevention in our thinking. Reinforcing retainers around our shores, for example, might be much more cost effective than the tremendous cost of preventing a millimeter rise in sea level.

Individual taxes. The “fair share” that any group has to pay should have some basis other than our desire to take their wealth from them. If we made the rich pay the same percentage in taxes that they have of our country’s wealth, or that they receive of the total income earned, their taxes would actually be less than they pay today in California. We don’t need to engender class hostility to justify taxation, just the realization that taxes are necessary to help those who can’t help themselves, and we should collect that revenue in the way least damaging to economic growth.

Corporate taxes. Corporations don’t pay taxes: consumers, employees, or stockholders do. If we tax stockholders, less investment will result. Sometimes in our economic cycle, we are awash in money for investment, so such a policy does little harm. At other times, we need to encourage investment and discourage consumption, so the tax should fall on consumers. The right answer depends on where we are economically.

COVID-19: Important as vaccines are, therapies for those who do get COVID-19 are also needed, to minimize the number who take up scarce hospital beds. The original “Operation Warp Speed” brought us vaccines remarkably quickly. President Biden should follow President Trump’s approach of massive up-front financing to develop and disseminate therapeutic medicines.

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Crime. Yes, there are “root causes,” but we need to insure speedy arrest, conviction, and punishment. Certainty of incarceration matters more than length of imprisonment.  We can contract with other states and private prisons to house criminals less expensively.  Setting a dollar value below which we won’t pursue criminals is wrong: it invites theft up to that limit. Making some depressant drugs available to addicts in a government-controlled setting reduces crime, overdose deaths, and the spread of disease.

Foreign policy. We have adversaries. We have limits, too. Identify America’s allies and let the world know we’ll defend them, but don’t try to create and defend democracies everywhere. Avoid civil wars. Open our markets on a reciprocal basis. Trade is a great alternative to war.

What these proposals have in common is not that they are all perfect, but that they don’t neatly fit into the orthodox menu of either polar position. The center has much to offer, if we can be heard.

Tom Campbell is a professor of law and a professor of economics at Chapman University. He was finance director of California, a State Senator, and a five-term congressman. He left the Republican Party in 2016 and is in the process of forming a new party in California, the Common Sense Party.