It's the very same mindset that leads people to call themselves conservatives while voting for people who offer the exact opposite of everything they say between elections.
They want to sit at that table while doing nothing to have earned their place there. They WANT. It's really no deeper than that. They want to be called conservative no matter how liberal their voting is. They will simply blame you for calling them on their actions.
Trump does that daily. So they do that as well. Before him, it was Romney. Or Mitch. Or Jonbon. It doesn't matter what liberal the GOP puts up, they vote for it and demand their seat at the conservative table instead of where their actions place them. At the kids table with the rest of their Democrat brethren.
Why? So they can destroy from within and ensure that a Liberal wins. Look at the last three four elections. Fully within the age of the Internet with any info imaginable a mere mouseclick away and what do they do? Spread rumor, attack facts, act like card carrying Democrats and DEMAND they be called conservative...which helps make the word utterly meaningless.
I can't begin to tell you how many people I have talked to in my life that think people like the current Trump crowd, or the Romneybots before them were 'conservative' and thus wanted nothing to do with the brand as those people disgusted them. Much like the drunk 'christian' that blows his check at the strip joint Saturday night and sits piously in the pews Sunday morning.
Frauds. Hypocrites. Evil. There are many descriptors that apply fully. They hate hearing there is consequence to their actions. But they never hate it enough to do anything to repeat their behavior and condemn anyone with enough of a spine to point it out.
Well, Norm, this is the reason we have a Congress with a couple of warriors for Liberty and a host of 'centrists' and Liberals.
The "He's
our Liberal" or our "lesser evil" argument has been winning elections for too long.
There is a comforting convenience in electing the status quo, people have the same somethings to bitch about, the same things to get angry about, like that ache in a knee or elbow in the morning, those problems, those chains are an old friend.
Only now, that ache isn't just an arthritic twinge, but heralds something that is growing, getting worse, contagious, metastasizing, and accelerating. The bromides of denial work only so long, the opiates of the Media will only mask the damage for a while, and sooner or later the pain will burn through the analgesics, by which time the damage will be done.
Then, inevitably, fingers will be pointed and excuses made, but the bottom line is that there is always the choice to not do or not support evil.