Conservatives make a lot more sense when you realize that they are actually about preserving a hierarchy and everything else they support or oppose is in pursuit of that.
Even when they aren’t at the top of the hierarchy, a) they’d like to keep the possibility that they could be at the top open, b) like not being at the bottom of the hierarchy, and c) believe one’s position in the hierarchy is deserved (which can even overrule item b and makes them admire the ones higher up, at least until they start threatening their ideas about the hierarchy).