Actually, before the Bushs took over, conservative did imply small government. But then these North Eastern liberals attached the word to themselves, hollowed out the meaning and poured a new meaning into the shell. Now the Bushs define Conservative. So much so that a fellow North East Liberal, Romney, can unabashedly call himself severely Conservative.
It’s just that a lot of people haven’t figured out that a Bait and Switch has taken place. But that never lasts forever. Pretty soon the word Conservative will start to stink. Then the progressives will have to go find another word to ruin.
I think they got the last of their mileage out of the “small, less intrusive government” bulls**t in the 1990’s. I was still buying it in 1994, when after running on that platform they promtly showed how much they meant it by nationalizing child support enforcement. They got more and enamored with big government once they were in charge.