Conservative leaders like William F. Buckley, the editor of National Review, the leading conservative publication, took to heart progressive historian Richard Hofstadter’s critique of widespread paranoia on the right. Buckley purged the extreme libertarians like Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard, anti-Semites like Willis Carto of the Liberty Lobby, and the conspiracy-obsessed John Birch Society. And he made peace with the civil rights movement, as historian Al Felzenberg has documented. In the 1970s, the conservative movement became receptive to moderate conservatives, called “neoconservatives,” such as Irving Kristol (father of Bill, the prominent anti-Trump conservative), who had been turned off by the anti-intellectualism of movement conservatism in the Goldwater era. Irving Kristol established an important journal, The Public Interest, which brought intellectual rigor and sophisticated policy analysis to the conservative table. Politicians like my former boss, Representative Jack Kemp, began reading it religiously. Others, like Rep. Dave Stockman, wrote for it and made names for themselves in the process. Eventually, this crowd found a powerful leader in Reagan, who appointed important neoconservatives like Stockman and Jeane Kirkpatrick to high-level positions.
In other words, this idiot believes that the only way the Right can succeed is by becoming more like the Liberal Establishment. We've already tried that with Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, and Romney. And what did we get? Either losses or "victories" that resulted in having someone in office who may as well have been a Clinton Democrat.
That quote is accurate. Buckley sold out during the late 60’s and 70’s and then Reagan foolishly embraced and empowered neocons, choosing to stuff his administration full of them rather than the long time conservatives who made his victory possible.
The early support for Trump was a reaction against neoconservatism and Buckley style cowardice.