[x]

And then there are the hard core globalists who never really were conservative. Many of them made a living out of subverting the conservative movement against its own interests.

The focus was on fighting Communism. And on cutting out Big Government. If Communism and Big Government went down, what does that leave?

It wasn't an easy question to answer. Some people assumed what was left was a global free market. I think they were wrong, but it's easy to see how they came up with their answer, since the focus was overwhelmingly on the USSR and on the federal bureaucracy. Nobody was holding anybody's feet to the fire to get them to give a different answer back then.

[Eisenhower Republican]

The focus was on fighting Communism. And on cutting out Big Government. If Communism and Big Government went down, what does that leave?

You make some good points.

The movement did seem to lose some impetus after the USSR fell, and a certain class of "conservative" took full advantage. Those in the camp that wanted a strong independent USA and limited government were ostracized and marginalized by the subversionists at every turn. Pat Buchanan looks like a prophet in retrospect.