"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Here’s what I took from what Rush said and the article he read:
While 60% of the country consistently self-describes as conservative, only about 20% of those self-describe as “very conservative.”
Of course, what the difference is between being conservative and very conservative is likely in the eye of the beholder.
That said, however, it seems clear that those who disdain the Republican party (your words) are likely to be within that 20% that describes themselves as “very” conservative.
Certainly, this seems evident around FR, for example. It is those people who feel they are the “most” conservative who also tend to claim that they are “not Republicans” and that they have disdain for the Republican party for not being conservative enough.
If that’s true, that leaves at least 40% of conservatives who, while demonstrably not entirely happy with the Republican party, continue to view it as an appropriate (if not always effective) vehicle to express conservatism in the political realm.
So any aversion that may be seen to the GOP is not, as you posit, because the GOP “abandoned” conservatism, but because, for a certain segment of conservatives, the GOP simply is not conservative *enough.*
Since presidential elections have been mostly close in recent history, the 40% of conservatives who, by and large, make their political home within the GOP need only come up with, say, 5-11% more voters to win the election.