It was not a rejection of liberalism but perhaps a rejection of America’s excesses in the late 60s and 70s whereas liberalism just happened to be in power on both sides of the political aisle at the time and so took the blame though without fault.
So this excess this hedonism gave rise to conservatism even among progressives. But it was not a rejection of a political belief but of excess.
Americans still believed in helping one another, in social security and medicare and paying taxes as part of collective whole for the benefit of all.
At first conservatism seemed like a warm hearth on a cold day, an affable friend in a time of need. But then it began to twist into ethnic and racial scapegoating,rich against poor, uneducated against educated, angry hate, xenophobia, unjustified and unpaid for wars, torture, the refutation of science, tax cuts that create deficits that are blamed on the safety net and the utter destruction of the environment.
And many wonder if its too late to change course and return to happier days of our liberal trajectory through time and space when prosperity was shared and measured not by your credit limit but by real income and quality of life.
But it seems as if we are incapable of change satisfied to believe the Earth is flat. Fear and complacency outweighs doing what is right. And that is how civilizations really crumble no longer moving forward but frozen in stagnation with all divided.