Jay D. answered • 05/10/19
Undergraduate Honors Student Majoring in French Secondary Ed.
American conservatism really latched onto the principle of laissez-faire economics during the Reagan Era. Modern-day American conservatism, and to an extent the whole mainstream political spectrum in the US, have their roots in Ronald Reagan's presidency. Some aspects reach back before Reagan, but the idea that unrestrained capitalism will always provide the best solutions to every problem really became ingrained in US politics during Reagan's presidency.
I must say, though, your ideas about social norms and the status quo don't make sense to me. I mean, I understand that many conservatives see themselves as rebels fighting against the oppressive hand of the SJWs' cultural Marxist conspiracy to destroy Western civilization or whatever--maybe that's an overstatement for you, but I hear that so much nowadays it's not even funny. Anyway, conservatives' self-perception is not what matters here. Social conservatism is fundamentally for the status quo; that's what it seeks to conserve. Conservatives generally oppose challenges to what has traditionally been considered the default or "normal"--that's what social norms are--be it with regard to gender, sexuality, race, etc. It's all about the people who already have disproportionate social influence, and therefore power, maintaining that power. And money, capital, wealth? That's liquid power. The more money you have, the more you're able to influence society at large, and the fewer corporate regulations and taxes on the rich there are, the easier it is for money, and therefore power, to concentrate into fewer and fewer hands. That's essentially why social conservatism and laissez-faire capitalism go so well together.
