Republican conservatism is dead. Rove was a key architect of its death.

James Moore has written an open letter to Karl Rove, a key architect of the current set of disasters that afflict America. As a part of that letter, he explains why the conservative philosophy as applied by Rove, Gingrich and Bush is so very wrong. Rove and his crew are all about gaining power, not making government work.

See, here's the deal, Karl buddy, government is about service not power. If it doesn't serve the people, they reject it. When Katrina happened, the country saw what you and W had been doing. You used every institution of government to acquire more political power. All of the institutional knowledge from experienced employees and all of the non-believers were kicked out. Government agencies became largely dysfunctional and Katrina was the first time the covers were pulled back to show what you had done. All of that suffering, too, will be your legacy.

If you were so smart, you would have seen that politics, politics, politics, and no policy were bound to lead to your destruction. The only policies you and your people instituted were those that eliminated regulation and allowed near chaos to unfold. I'd put your pal Phil Gramm's Commodity Futures Trading Act under that heading.....the law that led to unregulated credit derivative swaps and has, consequently, led us to an economic precipice. I don't want to bring up Enron, but, what the hell? Remember how Gramm got energy futures trading deregulated and all of those people lost their investments but Bush got energy policy advice and campaign cash from Enron CEO Ken Lay and all of the other big dawgs on the bayou?

The truth is, Karl, every damned thing you did was wrong. It was for the wrong reasons and led to the wrong results. And half of what you did was based on lies. You still seem to think that if you lie loudly and long enough you will sound authoritative and people will begin to believe. But now not even Bill O'Reilly is buying your crap any more. Look back at your decisions and then try to tell yourself Bush and you are not responsible for the current crisis that threatens our very republic. It's all yours. We may have the leader now who can turn this around but it will be difficult. At a minimum, you are no longer a meaningful voice in the American political discourse and that gives me more hope.

I'd add one more thing to Moore's letter. The conservatives want more than power. They also want profit, and they see government as a massive source of money from which they can personally profit. Of course, that's easier if you get power over the government and do not recognize that government is about service to the people. That is the Libertarian strand of conservatism.

The point is that Rove, together with Bush and Cheney and so many like them, have placed a stake into the heart of Republican conservatism. It is now dead. The election of Barack Obama means the end of conservatism, and the Republicans know it. Why else would the Congressional Republicans ask their constituents for ideas to recreate an effective conservatism for the twenty-first century?

It's time for the media to stop claiming America is a center-right nation. It's not. It's a centrist pragmatist nation that is much to big for the limited ideology of conservatism to deal with, and Karl Rove is a key architect is proving that fact.