I think it helps to understand conservatism as a bias in the way people solve problems. In a vacuum where tribalism is absent, conservatism comes from being more risk averse and preferring older societal systems, real or perceived.
Capitalism was successful for the visible society until inequality grew so bad that economic development started going backwards. This perceived golden age also disenfranchised queers, jews, and blacks. So the appealing solution to many problems is to go back to the culture of the 50s where these things happened.
This risk aversion also presents itself in the rural/urban divide. People living in the suburbs who are risk adverse prefer the sheltered, familiar environment of rural areas/suburbs, instead of moving to cities, where they have to face the possibility of strangers, or foreign cultures/ideas. So the appealing solution is to stay in rural areas.
Conservatism also has a preference for stratified social structures. There is a core tenet that is very common among American conservatives that says “some people are more important than others”. This also causes conservatives to lean towards economic stratification, bigotry, and authoritarism.
Of course these are just their biases, i.e. the preferences that conservatives are likely to lean on when first presented with a decision. Similarly, progressives have different biases stemming from underestimating risk. Other factors can also have a lot of impact in political decisions such as context, tribalism, personal experience, etc.
I think the big issue corrupting American conservatism and preventing it from being a healthy stabilizing debate partner, like you see with European conservatives, is that the entrenched ideas and tribalism have gotten so extreme and detached from reality that American conservatives are just openly fascist. American Republicans hate European conservatives like Macron, Merz, and Rutte. The cause of that goes far beyond just personal biases and into serious structural problems in the US, and powerful corrupting interests.
Even then, why an educated person like JD Vance thinks he needs to end Liberalism worldwide and attack European culture is beyond me. My best explanation is either selfish opportunism or corruption.
But yeah, if you talk to the average Trump voter and get to know them, there is a lot you can probably agree on, and there are a lot of bubbles, tribalism, and misinformation you can debunk and come to reasonable conclusions on. We’re all logical humans somewhere.
It’s both. They share both the bias towards avoiding risk and the bias towards stratified social structures.
Tribalism is common to all political leanings though unless consciously suppressed.
But yes, American conservativatism is really broken and unwell.