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Their claim is that the country has been ruined by the left, and they want to restore it to its former glory. It requires ignoring the fact that the country has taken a hard right shift since the time they are idealizing.
As for the cognitive dissonance, Stephen Colbert (during The Colbert Report) played around with this self-contradiction. His book is titled "America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't"
Edit: autocorrect
Has it taken a hard right shift? There's far more civil liberty (the underlying thing most loud conservatives want to curtail) than "back in the day".
Sure, there's a much greater schism between ideologies these days, what with the normalization of social media and media in general... but I'd be hard pressed to say that the country is a lot more right leaning than it used to be.
You bring up a valid point. There are many facets of life and a left/right divide, and some of them did shift left.
But compared to the 50s (which is when many right wingers idolize), particularly starting with Reagan, we've seen:
Push for theocracy
The war on drugs
Less "society" and more individualism. This is especially true regarding regulation of harmful activities for profit, such as corporate pollution
Reduced enforcement of those laws that we do have, as long as it's a corporate entity and/or for profit
Massive consolidation of all industries. Competition is now mostly an illusion.
Strong push against workers' rights. Reduction in union protections, minimum wage laws, OSHA powers, etc
Active, planned takeover of media. This was started by (IIRC) Roger Ailes that if the right controlled the media, Nixon would not have been impeached. He went on to found Fox News with that philosophy, and proved it correct with Trump. See also: Sinclair
While this mostly happened at a state/local level, it has been nationwide. Government was intentionally ruined as an effective organization, and now provides way fewer/worse services
These are just a few ways that the country has shifted right, but they are so impactful to the average person's daily life.