Yeah, I was also an 80s conservative, but I couldn’t tell you how much I moved left vs how much the right pulled ever farther right.

Or maybe it was naïveté: for example it felt like “family values” meant actually valuing family, that fiscal conservativism was not spoken ironically, and science and education were worth investing in. Environmentalism seemed perfectly compatible with being an 80s conservative

But more importantly in the 80s it was ok to work with or even vote for someone in the other party. It was an attitude how things should be run, rather than a lifestyle or an us vs them. Maybe that’s just me though