This version of conservatism, however, runs counter to the model presented by the Republican establishment. The latest Republican administration got us enmeshed in two wars, neither of which is winnable, and both of which have cost us blood and treasure, as the old saying goes, that cannot be calculated. A small number of extremely elite “conservatives” has even profited from these ventures. Is that conservatism?

It was obvious from the beginning that our national economic woes come from Wall Street, not the government. Yet our “conservative” leaders think we should do away with oversight and regulation and give the financial world absolutely free rein. It is a freedom that has not been earned. And allowing our financiers to run unchecked is about as conservative as leaving the faucet running. Financial regulations discourage waste and fraud, two values that ought to be at the forefront of any conservative mind-set.

Here in Kentucky we have a number of so-called conservatives who advocate mountaintop removal, a destructive technique used by the coal industry. It is surely the most egregious and unnecessary form of coal extraction: thousands of acres of land are blown up and bulldozed away, as if the land itself is an unpleasant encumbrance without any value whatsoever.

Yet Jim Booth, a Kentucky politician and coal operator, was recently hailed here for sealing a deal to sell Kentucky coal to India, a deal that will make many millions for a few, but that, curiously, will export American energy resources in favor of mere monetary profit and at the expense of American energy independence.

Mitt Romney is keen to say he “is a friend of coal.” But I doubt Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan has ever looked out on the vast wasteland of a mountaintop removal site and pronounced it good.

They are also keen to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to Oklahoma, a project that would endanger water resources and threaten the vitality of huge sections of farmland. There is no way to describe such an outlook as conservative — shortsighted, opportunistic and wasteful, perhaps, but not conservative.

For that matter, I don’t see how a man who has multiple homes around the country, whose business has been to serve investors seeking purely monetary gains — that is, people with no interest in local preservation or local well-being, and those who do not live side by side the community into which they are invested — can be considered conservative.

That kind of extravagance has not been good for our country or anywhere else; it places making money ahead of making sense. If they represent anything, Mr. Romney and the policies he advocates represent a betrayal of conservatism, at least the kind of conservatism we practice here in Washington County.