I am a conservative. My views are less effectively represented after this election. My guess is that other conservatives feel the same way. So in that sense conservatives lost. That is not the same thing as saying conservatism lost/
But it seems to me, in the body of the piece, the author is saying that conservative leaders were hypocritical which is the reason they lost the election for themselves and the rest of us. I believe it is more accurate to propose that Republicans leaders in general, some of whom may be conservative, were hypocritical and lost the election for the rest of us, if you are going to make the argument to begin with.