I don’t understand how those world views can identify and (you didn’t say this, so hopefully not) vote conservative in US these days
He’s making light of how twisted the US understanding of the word “conservative” has become.
If conservatives actually governed the way they should they’d be easier to vote for. Small government, cutting spending, actually legislating to support rural Americans with things like good education and affordable health care…etc.
But they’re pretty much the opposite of all that.
Conservatism protects power where it exists now. You fundamentally can’t do that and be honest about it and maintain some form legitimacy in an ostensibly democratic system.
If you say “we love billionaires because they give us fat cheques, also we’re cutting your services because the billionaires don’t like taxes” you don’t get votes. So you have to drop one of those three things, and of course “be honest about it” is the easiest one to go without.
That’s the point. The Republican party isn’t conservative at all, but radical. They’ve abandoned most conservative political positions, including orthodox fiscal management, and exchanged conservative values for a constructed collection of ‘traditional values’, which are derived less from tradition than from the endless grievances that have replaced policy as their political program