This is the disconcerting thing about some modern American conservatives. They may spread false rhetoric about the left wanting fascism, but you ask hardline conservatives like Nugent about their views and they would genuinely be happy if the entire left was removed from the picture, would genuinely cheer on the deaths of democracy and the free press so long as the Republicans were in charge.
There are plenty of moderate conservatives out there, to be clear, but they're being drowned out in the Trump era by the more vicious followers who think the US would be better-off if the Democrats were declared illegal. I'm happy having a conservative counterpoint -- we need that conservative counterpoint -- but I want it to be an intelligent strain of conservatism like that of Buckley or Frum, not the childish Fox News/Breitbart/Daily Caller strain that's willing to destroy democracy just so its side 'wins.'