Believe Romney/Ryan 2012 was the dying embers of "conservatism" as was defined before.

The Republican Party has been drifting to the right since Reagan. Romney/Ryan was just the last way station to still contain recognizable vestiges of "conservatism".

I guess there used to be more of a sense that 'conservatism' was the economy small-government-low-taxes bit, as opposed to the identity-politics or anti-immigration bits, tho it's long-since collapsed into just meaning 'hard-line republican'

Reagan/Bush 1980 was, actually 💅