What's your conception of conservatism? I think liberals have core beliefs, but I think conservatives are reacting to liberals, looking for some impossible reversion to an impossible past rather than having any particular outcomes in mind. I'm not saying ideals don't exist, but that they're effect, not cause. I will admit that in this view, I am highly influenced by Corey Robin,
about whom see this. Why does it matter? I think it's mistake to think you can bargain with conservatives by identifying policy goals and negotiating compromises with them. Because they tend to be motivated more by sticking it to libs than by any particular outcome, that won't work. Also: If conservatives are motivated by principles, who are the thinkers defining those principles? It's not like the conservative movement is following any particular thought leader.
If you spend a lot of time on Twitter or Facebook, you will notice that conservatives spend a lot more time thinking about what will piss off liberals than liberals do about what will piss off conservatives. At the end of the day, liberals don't care about pissing off conservatives. They don't really care what conservatives think. They are focused on some other set of problems. Conservatives, OTOH, are obsessed with what liberals think.
YMMV. If anyone has a different view of what conservatism is, I'd like to hear it. I will note, though, that we keep hearing how liberals are responsible for Trump voters because of some episode of lefty/cosmopolitan/elitist disrespect for them. No one ever, ever, ever suggests that lefties change their vote because of what conservatives say or do.
