They want the power fantasy of everyone having to listen to them while never having to listen to anybody else

Conservative politicians want to be elected. And the way they want to do this is by stoking meaningless (and mean) culture war issues to keep their base a)angry and b) not focused on economic inequality caused by their donors.

To the Conservative mindset everything is a zero sum game.

Give rights to minorities, that’s taking rights away from white men.

Give restaurant patrons the right to dine in a smoke free environment, that’s taking away the rights of smokers

Increase the minimum wage, that’s devaluing the wages of everyone else

Probably the most telling in a US context is Medicare for all. Free health care devalues their paid healthcare. I mean healthcare is healthcare (sure some doctors are better than others) the only reason someone would be upset that other people could be entitled to the same healthcare as them, whilst costing themselves less, is because these people think they are more deserving of healthcare than other people.

Not centuries. It's more like they want to live inside a sitcom from the mid-20th century, where everyone is white and middle-class and living in a "traditional" male-led nuclear family that occupies a house in the suburbs, and pollution and its ilk aren't even worthy of mention.

Everything to be like when they were a kid. Uncomplicated, no real problems like nowadays with the wokes and the taxes

Conservatism varies tremendously by time and location, but I don't know if changing or improving is ever the point. Some combination of doing it the way it used to be done, hurting the right people, and supporting the existing social hierarchy go into the mix. There's also movements like libertarianism that tend to glom on to Conservatism, but done straight are a very different animal.

To be fair, progressive ideas can be bad sometimes too. Eugenics is a great example that all the cool forward-thinkers were into for a while. At least we try though...