I think the fundamental problem with liberalism is that it still has a foundation of "fallen angel" thinking. We suppose that humans are something different than a crow or a raccoon, and in keeping this illusion, we don't consider our existence as integral with our whole myriad of environments (natural and artificial). Cities isolate us from the natural world, so our collective choices about the natural world are open-loop extraction for profit vs a whisper of 'caring' for the poor creatures of Earth. Our corporations are set up as limited liability (more isolation from response ability) for a few, which makes their choices an open-loop, with a smattering of 'consumer feedback' that is manipulated through propaganda and child exploitation (McD's, religions teaching 'respect for authority', etc), and then there is the education system that further isolates the 'enlightened' from the 'ignorant masses', with credentialism, social success structures and grooming that accelerates the extraction of liberal brain power from the places that need it the most (those closest to the natural environment: farms, construction work, town meetings) and exploiting that brain power for the benefit of a pyramid of capitalized aristocracy.
It isn't necessarily human nature (liberal or conservative), but the systems which keep human nature (collective intentionality) from working. The basic human nature is social and generous in order to form tribes. That nature is usurped by any system based on unfettered profit (including so-called "moral" 'non'-profit systems that build infrastructure from charity through the same tools used by capitalism). This could be an argument as for why the mid-20th century (high income taxes) was more progressive than the late 20th (open loop profits).
It isn't that reason alone can't find the right path: it's that reason is usurped by power and bullies who build walls between our reason and our needs. The quickest way to stop their systems from working is through feedback systems. Electric fences, if you will, that connect our behaviors to true costs. In paleo existence, feedback was in the form of death. In a capitalist society, that feedback would be sales tax. In an agro-economic society, it has to be place-based support systems that put the value of regeneration ahead of profits, and reward behavior that improves places.
City-based extraction systems cannot be reasoned with because they eschew natural philosophical reason as a habit. Profits are made by preventing reasoned thought, either through fear and greed, or through competitive fanaticisms.
As long as humans are taught that competition is the goal (the invisible hand ), they won't be fully reasonable: they will see other humans as a threat instead of a resource.
