Don't knock the status quo too much. The status quo is a system that brought billions of people out of abject poverty, gave us human rights, democracy, etc. We take these things for granted, but we're in an incredibly unique and very new situation where you even have the privilege to sit around and pontificate about ideas like global poverty, gender issues, gay rights, etc. Civilizations have crumbled before, and ours WILL crumble at some point in the future. One quote I like about the US is that conservatives are progressives going the speed limit. And your comment about the right fetishizing the status quo is in line with that. A progressive wants to go a mile, conservatives are like, "Ehh... let's walk a few steps in that direction and see how it goes"