Naw. I just suspect that some of the people who originally signed on, varied from RINO's to fiercely conservative. There's one fellow in particular, I am thinking of. Out of fairness to him, I won't name him. He was a FR bigwig for some time, but it turned out, when he was banned for pounding on Sarah Palin pretty much with every post, that he may have held some conservative ideals, and some ideals that were more Republican party loyalist. There have been, actually, more than just a few of those, now that I think of it. The Old Guarde was just as likely to get some more-Republican/less-Conservative people as the current signup crew.
In fact, there's one guy, who's name escapes me, who actually admits to starting here as a conservative -- way back in 1998 -- but drifting so far to the left that he now self-describes as an outright liberal.
So, standards have changed, and even people change.
So we got some Goldwaters here—righteous conservative heroes in the beginning but senile gullible old fools near the end...
...I prefer the nefarious conspiracies of the evil Left but you are probably right and it breaks my heart that some of us are so weak—so weak as to suggest our struggle is a question of if the cause is worth it.