This article explains it better than anything else I have read. It's a little bit long, but the title question doesn't lend to the short, simple, wrong answers favored by conservatives and the lazy.
The obsequiousness of Trump's Republican enablers explained, with historical context.
The answer is also in Zipr's signature, the quote by David Frum: "When conservatives realize they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will abandon democracy."
The Christian framework of principles conflict with democratic principles. Whether a particular conservative is Christian or not, this is the framework at play. Democracy is not a tribal label or group identity or religion. It doesn't contain the right elements for enslaving a mind, i.e., authority worship, intolerance of dissent, us vs. them mentality, the ideology itself being valued high above human well being, the sense of self conflated with the ideological group identity, etc.
If you're steeped in such a mentality, as millions of Americans are, ideas such as democracy, conscience, equality, are nothing more than lip service. They're fine as long as this conflict in conservative heads is not too disturbing and as long as they are politically useful. But there is no doubt they are not conservative values. If a conservative does truly hold democratic values, they would dissent, and some have, as we've seen. What's left are the most seething of zealots. They'll sell their kids to remain in the group's graces, at least as long as the group has any power. Once the group is defeated, they'll scatter and try to pretend they didn't know or weren't as complicit as they were.
It's a disease of humanity.
Edit: In other words, they have not abandoned their principles. They are following their principles to a T.
