"I don't see how regulating the supply of housing is conservative. If laissez faire treatment of markets is a conservative idea, then this cannot be." Your con

"I don't see how regulating the supply of housing is conservative. If laissez faire treatment of markets is a conservative idea, then this cannot be." Your confusion is understandable and to be expected. "Conservative" in the United States has been co-opted by pro business narratives to mean the opposite of what it means by definition. In your example, "laissez faire treatment of (anything)" is by definition, a liberal policy. Regulation, rules, guidelines - these are impulses in the conservative direction. 21st century politics in the United States has this nomenclature backwards. Gun rights are another example of this. The United States has extremely liberal gun policies and the second amendment is almost off the charts in terms of liberalism. And yet we refer to it as "conservative" - and we refer to gun control and gun regulation, etc., as "liberal" policies.