Well it's money and power but also deep investment in preconceived notions, and fear of change and diversity.

Fundamentalist Christianity is a closed system that keeps out new information / ideas by design. As such ... there is nothing to DO but the same things over and over. Because god commands it.

Before the unholy alliance of conservative Christianity with right-wing extremism, mainstream conservatism was very different than it is today. It was in many ways not a closed system so much as one that feared change for the sake of change, that wanted to make judicious changes with respect for the law of unintended consequences. It wanted to slow down change, but not so much to utterly PREVENT it. Now conservative politics in the US is about NEVER changing unless it involves regressing, usually to some imagined "good old days" that never actually existed.

At any rate ... if you don't like people doing the same things and getting the same crappy results over and over, you're not going to like the coming years because with 85% of Republicans approving of Trump and his disastrous policies, policies largely endorsed and enabled by evangelicals, I think that even if Trump ends up not getting re-elected or is disgraced with impeachment, TrumpISM will be with us for a depressingly long time. It's the only hope the religious right has of surviving, and they are going to cling to it no matter what.

That is so true. I have that posted on my pc. When I get stuck on something I remind myself to do it differently. It is amazing why a very few people can rule over the rest of the population of the world. Speeches from politicians of 2000 years ago are still being used today. Scientists think that the vast majority of people have the need to be told what to do. While there are just a few free thinkers. I think that may be true about people needing to be told what to do. When we think for ourselves we have to accept responsibility for our actions. Letting others think for us and it doesn't work out we can blame them. As a student of history I don't really see any difference between then and now. In my life time I have seen the continual repeating of history. A few people can tell millions of soldiers to go kill others that they don't know or have any problem with. What if those soldiers or police or etc., said no and thought for themselves? Just my thoughts.

Intellectual lazines. A fear and resentment of change. Just don't wanna. Those are my reasons. Politicians ... Yeah, money.