Conservative or reactionary

Whether it is Joe Scarborough complaining there is no solution to the problem of mass shootings at schools because "it's complicated" (spoiler alert; it's not) to Jeb Bush and most of the other republican presidential candidates pushing fossil fuels in the face of abundant evidence that wind and solar are the energy sources of the future, the conservative face of policy has increasingly been to rail at or dismiss progressive alternatives.   As recently as the early 2000s, Paul Krugman points out even Dick Cheney's energy task force looked at renewables and conservation as valid strategies.  There is no hint of this in Jeb!'s energy policy.  Likewise, when it comes to the epidemic of gun violence, conservatives genuflect to the second amendment and throw up their hands, saying it is too complicated to expect legislation to deter mass shootings.  Meanwhile all other industrialized nations have a fraction of the gun violence we experience.  The difference;  they limit the availability of firearms to most citizens.  These are just a couple of policy areas where the forces of reaction have paralyzed a major political party and forced us to endlessly debate the validity of things which all other nations have already settled in favor of progressive alternatives.