It was fun while it lasted.

The guaranteed election of a non-conservative President on November 4th represents the end of the conservative movement in America. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain stands for Reagan principles in any way, shape, manner or form—and after twenty years of non-conservative Presidents, it’s obvious that the Reagan era will never, ever return.

The conservative movement has been in the hospital for nearly two decades. Once George H. W. Bush—a good, moral man, but not a true conservative—entered the White House, conservative principles slowly but surely began to leave. Yes, he gave us a victory in the Gulf War and Clarence Thomas, but he also gave us a broken no-new-taxes promise and David Souter. Bush was more Rockefeller than Goldwater, during a time when America and the world needed more of the latter and less of the former.

Bill Clinton replaced Bush in 1993 and, during his eight years in office, stole certain conservative concepts (NAFTA, welfare reform) and destroyed others (judicial restraint, the rule of law). Clinton moved the country in a secular direction, helping to make the 1990s as culturally loose as the 1980s were culturally traditional. Clinton also seemed obsessed with, among other things, promoting the notion that the Reagan era was a fluke, and that (despite his famous 1996 claim) big government was a permanent reality.

Take away Samuel Alito, John Roberts, the vibrant mid-2000s economy and his antiterrorism successes, and George W. Bush would be viewed as a man who did as much damage to the conservative movement as Clinton. Bush had a strange antipathy for limited-government principles—a profound shame, considering that had he not received the strong support of those who cherished limited-government principles, Al Gore would have kicked his butt in the ’00 election. Bush betrayed conservatives in countless ways; he attempted to force “big-government conservatism” down the right’s collective throat, causing conservatives to join “progressives” in scorning Bush during the course of his second term. Bush’s record-low poll numbers are the direct result of his alienation of the GOP base through his lack of fidelity to conservative principles.

After twenty years of this sort of poor health care, the conservative movement is now in its dying stages. As a result of a lack of nutrition, the movement is malnourished, its lungs weak, its bones brittle.

A body can only survive being malnourished for so long before it expires. Neither McCain nor Obama will provide any nourishment to the conservative body. If McCain wins, the Republican Party will officially return to its pre-1980 status as a home of “moderate Republicanism”, and conservatives will be frozen out. If Obama wins, he will likely push this country in a radical-left direction with the aid of a compliant Democrat Congress.

History will reflect that after Reagan left office, the conservative movement ultimately failed to conquer the moderate-Republican and liberal-Democrat forces aligned against it. The “blue-blood, country-club” wing of the GOP and the hard-left wing of the Democrat Party were united in their loathing of conservatism: both moderate Republicans and liberal Democrats viewed conservatives as Bible-obsessed bigots who didn’t deserve to participate in the American political system. They waged a two-decade effort to starve and dehydrate Reagan conservatism; their efforts have met with tremendous success.

On November 4, we will elect a Republican who straight-out hates Reagan conservatives or a Democrat who regards the Reagan vision as venomous. No matter who wins, the conservative revolution will have been quelled.

The conservative movement broke barriers and moved mountains during the Reagan era, but that era has long passed. Twenty years of non-conservatism in the White House has resulted in the conservative movement waiting for the doctor to officially declare the body dead. Two Bushes and one Clinton inflicted severe damage upon conservatism—damage that was far too excessive for the movement to successfully recuperate from. They weren’t alone: the Bushes and Clinton were aided by folks who held longstanding grudges against Reagan conservatism and did all they could to suppress the movement. A McCain-Obama race is a huge win for these folks, because one way or another, Reagan conservatism loses.

Things will never be the same again. The movement that was born on November 4, 1980 will be declared dead on November 4, 2008. The conservative movement was once young and strong; now, victimized by twenty years of abuse and misuse, it has become feeble, aged, on the verge of passing on to the next world. The priest is about to read the Last Rites. The family is at the bedside, crying and praying for God’s mercy. After this election, the tears will dry, the body will die, and we can do nothing but softly say goodbye.