Isn't that one facet of leadership...getting people to listen? Otherwise one is just a simple minded caretaker, a follower. Bush is clearly not simple minded.
You can tilt at windmills or you can get down in the ditch and get dirty.
I take it you do not agree that Bush's words and deeds suggest he believes bigger, more powerful, more intrusive government in several areas (education, farm, medicare....) is a good thing. How come? Getting in that ditch is not doing our country much good at home, the tax cuts excepted.
For some reason, the Bush defenders simply refuse to acknowledge that certain actions are not conservative. They seem happier with axioms, anecdotes and platitudes and analogies. At best they may say 'I don't agree with everything....' without much in specifics.
How can we ever get to where we want, assuming we want smaller, less intrusive, less costly, Constitutional government, if we refuse to clearly identify and criticize certain actions that lead in the entirely opposite direction?