I've been going down a bit of a rabbit hole on "what conservatives believe" and weirdly, and this is from both Roger Scruton, and the book "The conservative mind". is it's a bit like porn, you can't define it, but you know it when you see it. I mean this is sort of a tangible points conservatives make about believing in "common sense" that there's basically a higher truth that we all know exists that should guide us.
Roger Scruton in I think this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eD9RDTl6tM. Says that basically conservatism in the 80's in the UK was whatever Margaret Thatcher believed. This really I think helped me understand why the conservative transition from Reagan/Bush to Trump went more smoothly than I thought it would among trad conservatives.
Growing up indoctrinated into conversative evangelism, I saw that the Midwestern flavor valued freedom of individuals from government. It was a shallow flavor of self sufficiency, which discounted all social support except family and churches. Abortion was a wedge issue preached from every platform.
Tribalism was a key substrate. This often manifested as a near blind loyalty to the party and chosen thought leaders like Bill Graham, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and now Tucker Carlson. They told us how to interpret events and we repeated the talking points. They gave us the (often contradictory) rules and principles we were to use to view everything in life.
Roger Scruton in I think this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eD9RDTl6tM. Says that basically conservatism in the 80's in the UK was whatever Margaret Thatcher believed. This really I think helped me understand why the conservative transition from Reagan/Bush to Trump went more smoothly than I thought it would among trad conservatives.