I think that’s a highly, highly idealized idea of what conservatism means, and as someone in my fifties I don’t think that has been seen in US politics since my parents were children (Edit: and in thinking about this comment after leaving it, I’m not even sure who I’m imagining from that time who fits the bill - Eisenhower maybe? Gotta love this from him.) - and we all know the social ills we’ve had to stamp out since then. Those sort of “principled” conservatives may have been “better” people than the trumpists, but were still not compatible with any modern non-regressive attitudes regarding LGBTQ+ rights, modern views of women’s rights or the degree of agency that modern women have, nor modern understanding of racism and bigotry within individuals and systemically throughout our institutions.
In the same way that communism has enough widely known examples of how badly it can go that most people in the US run from it politically* (I acknowledge people disagree with that assessment, and that it’s oversimplified, but I’m not here for that argument - it’s how most people feel, deserved or not) there is or should be no one with a modern understanding of conservatism who doesn’t likewise run from it. How can a conservative party exist in the US which doesn’t get overrun by maga-types? What other party would they join? Even the Democrats are too conservative for many (including me), but the magas aren’t going to run there for sure.
*I frankly think that a hundred years from now the US will be held up as an example of the perils of rampant, corrupt, unchecked capitalism in a way that is viewed equally abhorrently as folks from my generation and earlier viewed the USSR and other “communist” nation examples. The air quotes are a nod to those who argue that none of those commonly touted examples of the ills of communism were truly communist nations, though again I’m not here for that argument.
