Conservative talk radio host Steve Deace, a longtime Romney critic, tells Business Insider that the "civil war" within the Republican Party has already begun in the wake of Mitt Romney's loss to Barack Obama.

Deace, a prominent Iowa Republican and longtime Romney critic, emails:

"He [Romney] killed us all over the country. Look at [same-sex] marriage. We've never lost the issue before, until it shared a ballot with Romney then we lost it four times on one day. Heck, we even won marriage in California on Election Day 2008 for goodness sake.

There will never be another establishment candidate like that. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie...those people will never happen. Heck, I think Christie will be driven out of the GOP and be the next Charlie Crist. Mitt just killed Republicans in my home state. People are angry, especially because Matt Drudge and Karl Rove told us it was all in the bag all along, after they got done smearing conservatives in the primary and dumping on Todd Akin.

It's on like Donkey Kong."

Deace's dissatisfaction with Romney and other moderate Republicans lays bare the growing rifts between the GOP Establishment and grassroots conservatives. The general election detente between these opposing factions ended abruptly last night, launching what is likely to be a prolonged period of mutual recrimination and fratricidal struggle over the direction of the party.