My take on the "conservative movement" and its future

In my opinion, the "conservative movement" is, more or less, nothing more than a lobby and a front group for wealthy, able-bodied, heterosexual white Protestant men. From their support for tax cuts to the wealthy, to the increase of employer rights to the detriment of employee rights, to opposition to gay marriage, their anti-feminism, hatred of Barack Obama, historical opposition to Civil Rights, and inventing the "political correctness" bogeyman, I think it's quite clear that conservatism is just an old boy's club.

Conservatives are not fond of any movement that extends rights to anybody other than their target demographic. They decry middle-class tax cuts (as proposed by the President during his 2008 campaign), and support making the GWB pro-rich cuts permanent. Conservatives are anti-union, against the Employer Free Choice Act, and engage in juvenile smear tactics when a proposal to replace "at-will employment" with "just cause employment" comes up. As well all know, conservatives are vehemently anti-gay and consider gays and lesbians to be second class citizens. Anti-feminism is another key component of conservatism, with their opposition to pay-gap legislation, women serving in the military, and a woman's right to choose, among other things. Of particular note is right-wing politicians forcing women to actually pay for their own rape kits and pressuring battered women's shelters. While conservatives may say otherwise, I think a major reason why conservatives hate the President is because he is black. Which brings me to my next point...race relations. While all but the lunatic RW fringe has moved beyond open KKK-style racism, conservatives still decry poor blacks and Hispanics, affirmative action, and still think only the white man is fit to lead. Even the disabled are targets of the conservative hate machine, as many of them were opposed to 1990's Americans with Disabilities Act. And lastly, they are only supportive of conservative Protestants; even other Christians, such as mainline-liberal Protestants, Orthodox Christians and on rare occasions, even Roman Catholics, are not looked fondly upon by conservatives. They assume that America is a "Christian nation," rather than a nation with no preferred religion where Christians of all denominations, along with members of every other religion, is free to practice their faith. They want to put religion into public schools and other taxpayer-funded institutions; and rest assured, they all want it to be the conservative interpretation of Protestant Christianity. All in all, every single group that is in favor of straight white Protestant males; from the anti-gay and "straight pride" groups, racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations, the misogynistic "men's rights" groups, and Dominionist groups, is conservative.

The good news about all of this is, the conservative movement as we know it is doomed to the dustpan of history. For the past thirty years, the conservatives more or less were in control of the government of the United States. From January 1981 to January 2009, a conservative Republican sat in the Oval Office for all but eight of those years; and for the eight years we had with Clinton, he had to contend with a conservative House and Senate. Several conservative Supreme Court Justices were nominated to the bench. Conservative Republicans often held control of both the House and the Senate for that time frame. The conservative media machine grew by leaps and bounds during that time. And yet, in spite of all their electoral successes, the conservatives are losing the culture war. Abortion is still legal. Feminism has not gone anywhere. Affirmative action has not gone anywhere. The American workplace (and the nation as a whole) continues to become more diverse. Support for gay rights has gained a ton of traction in recent years. And with America continuing to become more multicultural and diverse, the conservative movement as we know it will have no choice but to adapt in order to remain electable and relevant.

they are finished. The demographics work against them.

I don't discount your way of looking at this, but I see it this way. I don't think the "conservative movement" from the '80's to today was ever really one homogenous thing. The ultra wealthy could never get their guys elected running only on the idea that helping the rich was good for everyone. They did convince people of that, but it had to be people that they already had listening to them because they co-opted the anti-gay;minority;poor message of the social conservatives. It was two movements, paid for by one, and populated by the other.

The republicans are where they are now because the social conservatives are being outnumbered, and the flawed economic message blew up in their faces pre-election.

I don't think the "help the rich" wing of the movement necessarily cared about anything else, though I'm sure there was bigotry to be found.