I used to think along these lines when I said I respect historical conservatives more than modern ones. Then I realized that some conservatives are conservationists, but conservative politics doesn’t inherently include conservation. Being a “small-c” conservative is about maintaining status quo, so every era’s conservatives stand for different things, and (typically) eventually find themselves on the wrong side of history. That doesn’t mean conservative ideals don’t have merit. But, the earliest “conservatives” wanted to conserve Monarchies rather than adopt progressive Democracies, and there has always been an authoritarian streak among the right-wing ever since the term “conservative” was invented. Authoritarians always have oppressed out-groups.