Why do conservatives vote against their own best interests

It's clear that republicans do nothing to help conservatives while democrats actually do things to protect blue collar workers? Is it just because of the social causes democrats tend to pursue? I would think economic impacts would be more of a concern for conservatives, but it looks like conservatives will harm their own economic futures if it means they can prevent a gay couple from getting married. I don't want to straw man conservatives, but why do they vote against their own best interests?

Right-Wing ethos is inherently self-defeating. You cannot be the freer, wealthier nation in terms of your populace if your people are enslaved by the rich and left with even less than they'd have if left-wing ethos were in place.

They are quick to point out that pure Socialism tends to fail and mutates into brutal Communism. What they fail to see is that even moderate right-wing societies end up with extreme poverty, since no matter how right-wing it starts off, once the rich are left to snowball their wealth and power, they do so infinitely until the entire nation's enforcement of law (regardless of actual written law) is centred around their personal and financial benefit/preference.

This happens always, every single time in every continent that embraced Capitalism in its unfettered form. It only gets successfully undone long-term through a shift to the left and Social Democracy.

I wouldn't say conservatives vote against their own best interests, but conservatives tend to be older.  If your a liberal, you think this is because they are old fashioned and not with the times.  If your a conservative, you think this is because they tend to have more experience as they age.  I remembered when I supported Obama because he was the first black president.  Now, I don't care what your race is, if you pay down the debt, repeal the income tax and replace it with a sales tax and a capitol gains tax, increase gun rights in the United States, and not punish ordinary people for their political opinions, I will support you, whether democrat or republican. 

Even though I usually vote for Republicans, I don't like Romney's policies because he supports banning semi automatic guns.  I'd rather vote for Jessie Ventura.  Even though he is a green party person, he supports the repeal of the income tax and he is pro 2nd amendment.  He supports a maximum wage and I don't support him on that, but nobody is going to agree with me 100% of the time and that's okay.

In terms of voting against their own interests, a big reason why I don't believe that economic democrat policies work is it is because of these policies that more people end up poor.  When I mean left wing, I don't mean communist.  Very few people advocate for communism, so it would be disingenuous to strawman them.  However, a majority of democrats support Lyndon B Johnson's war on poverty because they want to help the poor.  The thing is, that bill I think is the reason why we see so much poor people today.  Here is a chart you should check out:

The predicted poverty rate measures the predicted poverty if the war on poverty never took place.  It is because of big government intervention that people are still poor to this day.  This is why I support the repeal of the war on poverty.  America became the freest, richest nation in the world because of our commitment to economic liberty.