You could classify the 1990's as a "Conservative" year in my opinion. (Not Republican Obviously, look who was President), but you had a Republican dominance of Congress, and a President who practically signed every bill that came from the Republican Congress.
Now look at 2000's. I cannot see how this is a Republican decade. An incumbent President, even though there had been an attack on US soil, and despite being the "Party of National Security" Bush won the slimmest reelection since Woodrow "McFascist" Wilson against a man who had the personality of a plank of Wood. The Republican Party grew too accustomed to being in Power, and squandered it.
Not to mention I haven't seen one piece of really "Small Government" principles being passed across Mr. Bush's desk.
Bush = Nixonian Liberal
And you know the sick thing that is guaranteed to happen, once a real conservative republican president is elected in the future (12 or 16), in order to attack that president, they will say how much they admired GWBs policies - just like they heaped praise on his liberal father to attack GWB. They will praise the bailout and TARP packages, praise the healthcare bill he created together with the late Teddy (I killed a girl once) Kennedy. You know, because it was good, good for the nation. They will say that his immigration plan was great and that had it been enacted there would have been great changes made. They will use their Iraq votes to pretend that they actually supported the war so they look strong on national security again.