Conservatism is far from finished. Maybe taking a bit of a break for the time being, but far from finished.
Most newly elected Democrats ran on tickets moving towards conservatism as they realize the majority of Americans, even their Democrat constituencies, are conservative, do some point. Even Hillary moves right to get elected, as did her husband, Bill, in 1992.
Republicans were defeated in this last election, not conservatism. Republicans largest problem is they moved away from conservatism as challengers moved towards it.
That may well be so, but it certainly helps that they fear the mainstream media more than their own voters. When they had the chance to do the "Nuclear Option," they chose not to, because the media said how bad it would be. When they had Specter out of the big committee chair, they negotiated him right back in because the media said they should. When Lott praised an imperfect old man, he had to resign his seat because the media said it was a hate crime to praise that particular old man. They passed the McCain-Feingold "reform" bill because the media thought it was a good idea.
Time and again, conservatives have said what they wanted, and the media said what they wanted, and elected Republicans chose to do what the media said. Since their voters had little to illuminate their actions, compared to established media outlets, they chose the path of least resistance. It's funny, Republicans pay big dollars to mainstream outlets to air their political ads, and the time in between the ads is spent rebutting those ads. You would think they would figure out somewhere else to spend their money, than supporting their enemies.
The way the news media operates is nothing less than fascism. They own the instruments of information, and charge us for access to a small portion thereof. Screw them. Don't buy their newspapers. Don't watch their evening news. Don't set MSN as your home page. Don't use AOL. Don't subscribe to their magazines. Now that we have taught our politicians a lesson, we need to teach the MSM.