I think it’s simpler than that.
Civil liberties are Good, conservatives are Bad. Therefore conservatives are opposed to civil liberties.
Ya know, if they wanted to know what conservatives believe, they could join FR and post a vanity question. They’d get their ears talked off.
But they’d rather sit up there in the WP offices and attack straw men.
These aren’t WP people - they are members of a libertarian leaning think tank.