This is spot on. Post-war US conservatism's allegiance to "liberal democracy" was never as strong as many of conservatism's intellectual defenders claim it was. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/opinion/anne-applebaum-twilight-of-democracy.html

"Liberal democracy per se was never the animating passion of the trans-Atlantic right — anti-Communism was. When the threat of Communist expansion disappeared, so did most of the right’s commitment to a set of values that, it’s now evident, were purely instrumental."

"There’s no mystery in the right’s surrender to authoritarianism, because for many of the people Applebaum describes, it wasn’t a surrender at all. It was a liberation."

Trump's base is comprised largely of the same people who were Romney's base, and McCain's base, and GWB's base. There hasn't been some tectonic shift in the GOP coalition.

I respect the Never Trump conservatives who have chosen principle over party. But the idea that somehow Trump hijacked a party and a movement that was truly about liberal democratic principles just doesn't hold up to close scrutiny.

I'm returning to this because I have a pet peeve I have to get off my chest. A lot of Never Trump conservatives look down upon historians of conservatism who they think take too much of a snooty, outsider's view on the movement. But you know what, THEY were the outsiders, not us.

Almost every historian of conservatism I know grew up in fairly conservative, often rural communities like I did. Part of what brought us to the topic was our own lived experience. Meanwhile Anne Applebaum went to Sidwell Friends. Bill Kristol was born into conservative royalty.

Rich Lowry's dad was an English professor. Jonah Goldberg's mom was a major conservative operative in DC who helped shape the course of Clinton's impeachment. I could go on.

This whole right wing pose of "conservative public figures are the ones who really speak for the heartland, real Americans" is and has always been BS. These public figures were blindsided by Trump because THEY WERE SO OUT OF TOUCH.