For context, the author is one of the more influential members of the Federalist Society, the right-wing judicial takeover group. If you’ve lost him, you’ve lost a huge chunk of people who have historically funded the Republican party patronage machine.
there never were many conservatives like this judge. trumpers have always been the republican majority as they are now; but they were managed by higher profile conservatives like this judge and that gave republicans the popular palatability they needed to remain politically relevant.
things started to change with the tea party movement and the few remaining respectable conservatives recognized the shift and tried to control it as first publicly evidenced by john mccain’s vice presidential pick with sarah palin; but it’s led to trump and now they’re simply along for the ride as a passenger in their own party.