To be a conservative is to grow your political beliefs around your identity. Every conservative is the same in this regard, and that is how you end up with wildly disparate conservative values. The first decision a conservative makes is who is included in the “self.” Then they decide what policies and positions best benefit the self. This has always been true of every conservative who ever lived.

The problem they have right now is that Trump has made himself the only “self” that matters, and supporting him is the only path to power the Republican party has. All who have opposed him were made to kneel or be destroyed. Even Romney supported Trump when it was politically expedient. Romney tried to wrest control of the GOP away from Trump and failed, and look at him now.

The party must support Trump, because to abandon him now is to admit to the grift. They would have to acknowledge that he isn’t the messiah, and then the in-fighting begins. Because suddenly they would need to redefine the self, and whoever wins gets to set the values of the party.