Reasons

  I put together this small compendium of quotes in order to demonstrate how the conservative response to and reasoning against important social change has essentially remained the same over the issues of slavery in the 19th Century, women's suffrage in the early 20th Century, and gay marriage as it is occurring now. It was reading about Rick Santorum equating gay marriage to economic collapse just last week that got me intrigued here. Obviously this is a tiny collection and the range over which the idea could be examined is enormous.

It's always been there, it's the way they are:

Slavery - "Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind. The Greeks had slaves, the Romans had slaves, and the English had slavery until very recently." source

Woman's right to vote - "Women were emotional creatures, and incapable of making a sound political decision." "It is dangerous to change a system that works." source

Gay Marriage - "Marriage has always been a covenant between a man and a woman which is by its nature ordered toward the procreation and education of children and the unity and wellbeing of the spouses." source

It will ruin the economy or Armageddon:

Slavery - "Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would dry in the fields. Rice would cease being profitable. Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos. This would lead to uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy." source

Woman's right to vote - "If women became involved in politics, they would stop marrying, having children, and the human race would die out" source

Gay Marriage - "It’s also about a unity of men and women, for the purposes of having and raising children, and giving the child their birthright, which is to be raised by their natural mother and natural father. When we have less of that in America — then society struggles and suffers. Economically, it suffers; socially, it suffers; morally, it suffers — and children are harmed." Rick Santorum 6-20-14 source