A huge part of the narrative that conservatives tell themselves as to why they believe what they believe is that better things are not possible. See, they would love to be able to eliminate poverty, ensure everyone can get the healthcare they need, decommodify housing, make efforts to eliminate racism, etc (or so they tell themselves and each other). But any effort by the people themselves (through the collective effort i.e. the government) will at best be ineffective or at worst will have the opposite effect. This is based in… vibes. Or, well, they will point to some book by Thomas Sowell or Mark Levin that puts a serious veneer on those vibes. Or they’ll talk about how everyone in Lord of the Rings wants to make the world better by using the ring/power but that will destroy them and so we can’t have universal healthcare.

So when something that makes things better actually works (as is often the case whenever a real effort is actually made), it just highlights how ridiculous their position is. I know this is a meme but I’ve literally seen this reaction in real time when I show how it’s done all over the world.