The attachment on the right to the Duggar family told us a lot about how right-wing tribalism works even before the revelations of Josh Duggar’s past of child molestation came out. The Duggars are not exactly in step with the lives of regular conservatives, being adherents to a fringe form of fundamentalism often called Christian patriarchy. Most conservatives aren’t shunning contraception or premarital sex, and they sure as hell aren’t teaching their kids that kissing before marriage is wrong. Rates of divorce and teen pregnancy tend to be higher in more conservative parts of the country. The sex and family lives of your average conservatives look way more like those of liberals than they do of the Duggars. If people like the Duggars got their way and were able to impose their “family values” on the rest of us by law, conservatives would be getting screwed over just as much as liberals.
It goes to show that conservative identity politics are deeply irrational, with aesthetics frequently overwhelming basic common sense. You saw the same thing going on with the Duck Dynasty brouhaha. Phil Robertson, the patriarch on that show, is a moral monster whose beliefs are so odious that no amount of religious window dressing can make them look better. It’s telling that most of his conservative defenders elide discussing what he actually says in public, trying to focus their defenses on his right to free speech, which has never actually been threatened. Robertson, along with his grossly homophobic statements, endorsed the era of segregation and suggested the ideal time for girls to marry—and he means girls—is 15. I highly doubt that most of Robertson’s fan base and supporters would like it very much if he came over to their houses, offering to pull their girls out of high school so they can be married off to grown men. But he’s a white guy who says he’s Christian and conservative, so he gets these defenses, whereas liberals who aren’t gunning for your teenage daughters are treated like some kind of deviants.