Was it abandoning conservative principles to declare independence and go to war against our own government in 1776? Sometimes the system is so broken that the most conservative thing you can do is throw out the rules.
I actually agree with you here, but I have a different take on it, hence my issue with the article.
I don' agree with the article's premise that following the rules the problem, I believe the entire game itself needs to be replaced with an entirely new one which favors our outlook and nature, as was done by the founders.
They realized that they could not live with the current system and invented a new one, which we must do again.