Why's America more conservative than other Western Nations? Plus party challenge

[Orser67]

Well, I think it is more conservative than most of Europe, at least.

I'd say the point of divergence was the 1960s-80s, when the US experienced an uncommonly strong conservative reaction to the counterculture movement and to the perceived failure of Keynesian economics. Reagan and Goldwater did not have hugely different positions, but Reagan won a landslide in 1984 while Goldwater lost a landslide in 1964.

Among the factors that contributed to this conservative reaction were the high percentage of evangelicals (compared to other countries) who were wedded to the conservative movement after Roe v. Wade and other perceived affronts, racial polarization (particularly in the South), and the US's central place in the Cold War.

You could also put the point of divergence in the 1930s-40s, when the US did not move as far left as some others in reaction to the Great Depression and World War II.