trying to get at the essence of what the right thinks and wants

They view the current political-economic reality as being dominated by liberal, cosmopolitan, hypermodernist elites in control of the federal government via a vast, unaccountable, and mostly liberal governmental bureaucracy. They believe wealth-power-cultural elites are employing the resources of the federal government — run amok since the time of Roosevelt — at the expense of, to the detriment of, disregarding and disrespecting the heartland Americans, with a concomitant loss of the national and traditional ways valued by the heartland Americans.

To counter this they advocate:
. minimalism re: the federal government
. more sovereignty to the states, less to the federal government
. lower taxation
. education should be the province of the states, localities, and families (not the federal government)
. a strong military, but less in the way of foreign interventionism
. less in the way of governmental resources going to welfare-statist and redistributive policies
. less in the way of governmental “interference” and “coercion” re: social engineering initiatives (like: school busing for the sake of desegregation, DEI encouragement)
. US energy independence, so fewer restrictions on fossil fuel production; reduce environmental and climate change regulations; less in the way of federal government regulations in general
. more in the way of private initiative, self-reliance, free enterprise, unencumbered markets
. legal as-per-the-rules immigration is fine, but if there is illegal immigration it should be contravened and prosecuted as are other illegal activities