Before the major flip during the Southern Strategy of the 60s/70s, though.

That’s sort of what I meant by crossover issues early on making even ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’ muddy, even beyond ‘Republican’ and ‘Democratic’ being basically meaningless to our modern ears.

No, that's misinformation. The fathers of conservative thought, Edmund Burke and Joseph DeMaistre, were literally monarchists: the the only thing they want to "conserve" is hierarchy. The conservatives of today are the truest to their origins that they've been since the Confederacy.

The Alt-Right Playbook Endnote 3: Origins of Conservatism

to my understanding, that is very much not true.

the terminology of being a "conservative" did not come from supporting conservation of nature. that might be one aspect, and indeed, still today, there are conservatives that are very much interested in the conservation of nature, but this is not where it came from. it came from schools of thought in the american and french revolution concerning conservation of aspects of tradition, aristocracy, royalty, and religion.

afaik, this has also been the case tbroughout american history as well. perhaps you are referring to people like teddy roosevelt, who identified as a conservative to the public and had conservationist views and policies.

That's absolutely not true. It has always referred to preserving traditions and institutions.

Many "conservatives" of today shouldn't be called that imho, it's more like they are progressive but in a different direction