Dubya has made me a conservative [a]

In fact, I think he's far too liberal. Okay here's the touch of grey; conservative ideology is as such:
-Strong states rights/passive federal government
-Sanctified civil liberties
-Conservative moral values

This dates back to Thomas Jefferson, who believed Congress should only make laws necessary to uphold the Constitution. His perennial antagonist, Alexander Hamilton, believed in a strong central government - a 'liberal' view of the passage of the Constitution describing Congressional duties. Of course, this is all eighth grade course material, but somehow not common knowledge.

I'll stay away from the issue of moral values. It's messy, the rest is clean-cut.

With regard to the first two criteria, Bush has been extremely Hamiltonian. FDR had the New Deal, Bush has the war, the Patriot Act, the DHS, NSA wiretapping, or stem cell research bans. The federal government has grown in manpower, economic need, and legal authority. States have lost power. The American people have relinquished their privacy rights to obtain a sense of security. I do not present this as good nor bad, but a simple fact you can see every time you take a trip to the airport.

However you feel about any social issue, just keep in mind the incongruity of being a Republican/conservative and Democrat/liberal. If you're concerned that research science is threatening morality and human decency, consider yourself liberal. If you believe in the ACLU's zealous fight for personal freedoms, you can start telling everyone you're a conservative. If you hear someone using those words as synonyms, go upside their head.