You are wrong to blame social conservatives for Bush’s lack of conservatism in other areas. I also opposed Bush’s big government approach to education, campaign finance reform, and prescription drug benefits. In fact, social conservatives were not very comfortable at all with Bush when he was first running for the nomination in 2000. Bush was pushed by the same party leaders that now are pushing candidates like Giuliani and Romney. We only started to support him later when we were pleasantly surprised to find that he was more socially conservative then anticipated. So, if you want to blame someone for Bush - blame the party elites not us.
I disagree. Many social cons want to increase the power and scope of the federal government in order to forward their agenda. Abortion is a classic example. The federal goverment should have no say on it. What do you think drives big government conservatism? It is definitely not the libertarian or small government conservatives. It is composed of fiscal conservatives who are happy as long as the budget is balanced and the social conservatives(along with pretty much all liberals) as long it forwards their social agenda. These days fiscal conservatives aren’t happy with Bush’s “type” of conservatism. Only the social cons are.