They're confident their ideology is right, but they're not so stupid as to think "let's utterly fuck up most of the nation for our benefit" is going to be popular.

• They're also not so stupid as to think "we're eliminating democracy because I AM YOUR GOD! KNEEL BEFORE YOUR EMPEROR!" would allow them to live for long.

When deceit is no longer enough for democracy to serve conservatism, conservatives swiftly put an end to it; they just also happen to know its safer to pretend it's still a thing and accuse everybody else of being 'the real threat' against it.