
that's because they were keeping the mask on. i think there's this idea that the former conservatives were more like... refined? civil? they weren't. they just knew they didn't have the social capital to do the stuff as brazenly as this admin (who also doesn't have the social capital but does have the audacity)
for example, regarding renee good, a pre-trump conservative would've said "we're going to investigate this tragedy and figure out what went wrong" while quietly sweeping it under the rug and doing nothing. maybe the agent gets a slap on the wrist. current republicans are calling her a terrorist and slandering her to justify it. in both cases they hate her, are happy she was murdered, and want no consequences for her murderer. functionally the same, aesthetically different