I think there is a realization that many of those-—like NR, Ben Shapiro, Jim Geraghty, Jonah Goldberg, and others-—who jumped up and down screaming “conservative principles” really only meant “elect more GOPe so we can keep our goodies.”
I think that’s exactly right.
It’s very clear that this crew wasn’t nearly as inspired to challenge Obama. Lucky for us, they’re inept and ineffective against Trump, too.
This reckoning was a long time coming. Self identified conservatives haven’t delivered on much. Increasingly important, voters are coming to the perfectly reasonable conclusion that Republicans are (another) major obstacle to advancing conservative goals. If we’re going to lose anyway, why keep enabling these asshats?