Two things:

1. You incorrectly assume when I identify a principle of conservatism that I’m saying it’s exclusive to conservatism. I’m not. For example, the individual liberties listed in the first amendment are core enlightenment values, and embraced by a variety of political philosophies.
2. You also seem to assume that by “conservatives” I mean “Republicans,” and that’s not the case. While conservatism has been influential in the Republican party, it’s also had some influence on the Democratic party — think Bill Clinton and “the era of big government is over” — and American political parties are too large to match up neatly with a single political philosophy.

If you take away those assumptions, I hope you’ll see my article focuses on identifying changes in the use of the word “conservative” and related changes in which ideas influence the Republican party, rather than contrasting conservatives with liberals or Democrats.