The old conservatism and the new conservatism are about the same thing: defending the more powerful against the less so — To hear some tell it, something inexplicable has happened to the GOP, conservatism, and, more broadly, the American right. A party and movement once tethered to principles like smaller government, free trade, and deregulation has become a party of quasi-authoritarianism (meaning, big government), tariffs on imported goods, and regulation (at…