Why did the mythos of the free market turn into some kind of infallible messias for far right conservatives?

I blame it on Ayn Rand.

It is all about power, the CONs do not have it now and the propaganda and spin meisters are conjuring the cataclysmic scenarios in as prolific a manner as possible. Do not be sucked in, use your logic and judgement to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Because they think freedom is the goal, not the means, of a prosperous society. I think we can thank decades of propaganda, mostly from the Cold War as you suggest.

Are we speaking German now?

I think the current severe financial and economic crisis has cured about half of the far right conservatives. Free market fundamentalism has no future. A social market economy does.

I agree with dannyc. the need for power is the driving force here. Unfortunately, people who work in government are also not immune to this human weakness. The answer, in view of this tension of opposites, is careful and constant attention to curb the excesses of both sides.

as @dannyc said, it is power. America wasn’t meant to be like this.The Founding Fathers worked hard to ensure that a small group of rich folks would never dominate this country. There were policies put in place to ensure a thriving middle class. Beginning in the so-called Gilded Age, after the Civil War, and up to the Great Depression, there were those who would like to see the middle-class shrink to nothingness. However, democracy-loving leaders like Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower revitalized it with programs including antitrust regulations, fair labor laws, the minimum wage, Social Security, and Medicare.
So what happened? In the last twenty-five years, what we’ve seen is an undeclared war on the middle class. The so-called Neo-Cons waging this war are only interested in preserving and steadily increasing their own wealth and power. Under the guise of “freeing” the market, they’ve systematically dismantled the programs set up by Republicans and Democrats to protect the middle class and have installed policies that favor the superrich and corporations.

America will rebound in time. It needs a good enema to flush out the detritus of greed and opportunism by a smug elite. Just remember what is important is that you control your own life, your own destiny, and must fight like hell to retain that privilege fought for by generations past and present. The answers are in your friends, families, churches, schools, local festivals, and in the hearts and minds of all free people, not from the political pulpit of mediocrity and the Wall Street elites who want you to obey their commands. America will rediscover and redefine itself, adjust its consumer patterns to a new reality, and create wealth through the ingenuity of small businesses, creative thinkers, and the world at large…the ideas are right now in the minds of the youth who too often are maligned. Rebel from what the know it alls tell you, and all will unfold as it should. Free and unleash the power of your intellect..and read lots of Fluther answers to get you started, even the one’s you hate or think are faulty, they will sharpen your mind. Each thinking mind will make your country as powerful as ever. As a Canadian, I am betting on the young people of America to teach us the path to a new kind of free market, one that is grounded in social responsibility and true to the ideals of equality. My country’s success is intertwined with yours.