The variety of conservatism we are stuck with at the moment seldom looks like actual conservatism. It looks a lot more like authoritarianism (and in some cases fascism) hiding inside the conservative brand while it waits hopefully for the general populace to finish forgetting why authoritarianism and fascism are bad things.

Anyone who calls themselves ultra-conservative or hard-right is ignorant of where conservatism sits (and especially of where it ends) on the political spectrum.

To your point though, yeah, it's sad to lose another one from the apparently dwindling supply of remaining actual conservatives. At the very least it taints the political experiment to let farther-right ideologies stand in conservatism's place.

Funny thing - the Democratic Party is more conservative than the Republican Party is now. At least they seem to believe in preserving our institutions, upholding institutional norms and progressing in a moderate, deliberative manner based on policy analysis.

The GOP has been moving away from it's roots ever since Reagan.

And with the tea party infusion of the past few years, the GOP that has currently taken over Congress is widely composed of post-policy nihilists, who are attempting to radically dismantle said institutions and norms without regard to the consequences.

Agreed. The drift of both major parties away from their platforms and the widespread denial/misrepresentation of that drift is not leading anywhere good as far as I can see.