There has been a general trend in my lifetime.
Beginning in the mid-1950’s I saw the emergence of a conservative intellectual world. I became aware of William Buckley and his National Review. I became aware of the arguments against communism by George Orwell in Animal Farm and Sidney Hook. By the early 1960’s I was writing a Master’s thesis on selling the Post Office into a private form.
I watched the Young Republicans in California split into the Liberal Northerners and the Conservative Southerners. Then I watched the same battle play out in the 1964 Republican primaries between Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater.
By the next state election. 1966, Ronald Reagan had become so strong on the shoulders of the California South that he won the governorship.
His crew and their efforts gradually prevaded the Republican Party to win the Republican convention in 1980 and they elected Ronald Reagan President.
The next big win was by Newt Gingrich who created a successful Congress based on a very conservative platform.
In 2010, when the Republicans won Congress it was because of a conservative reaction to an out of control House that passed Obamacare without Republican support. There was a conservative wave against socialized medicine. A new movement was created: the Tea Party.
Most recently a conservative slate with the Tea Party won 14 governorships and a strong majority of Congress, The conservative majority of the Republican Party is now in control of the Party. All candidates, who are viable, are conservative. Very conservative. Pro commerce.
The movement is steady, durable and deeply rooted in the American psyche. Pro commerce has a solid place American politics.