They grasp it, they're just too polite or "principled" as they call it to utilize it. Even though Trump utilized it somewhat.
Conservatives then tended be very religious and held themselves to tenants of Christianity (haha bear with me). They believed in a higher power that they had to try and stay accountable to. Liberals however tended not to be, and are pretty much the same now. They had no morals or principals to hold them back from lying, deceit, and other forms of scummery. That's the best example of 'Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules' I could think of.
Exhaust your opponent by putting his back against the wall of his own beliefs. While he'll hesitate to lie about you, to undermine you, or to do anything that you are already doing to him. He's playing by a ruleset that you don't acknowledge. And don't worry, if they do lash out, you can just cry out in pain as you strike him back.
First got exposed to Saul at Occupy Wall Street in NYC. There were women going around crying in agony and misery once police came to shut down their marching or protesting. You probably know by know it's all theatre. So much of protesting is nothing but theater, and it all has roots in that book. They used it all as sympathy to get donation money and other resources.
What the police could've done was beat the absolute shit out of them, but when they cry and scream brutality, it seems to put people in their corner somehow. That imagery is also why cops in the US are scared to even do their jobs in a lot of places. The thought of what could happen to them is terrifying.
Power isn't what you have, but what your enemy thinks you have.
Also, conservatives pundits and leaders now seem to be on the payrolls of donors. Donors that endorse mass immigration and globohomo stuff, so that seems to effectively neutralized. I guess they like being punching bags as long as the gravy train keeps rolling in.