Verified answer

The meaning of "liberal" has changed. Today it typically means someone on the left (cradle to grave social welfare, government spending, social "freedom" etc.)

Back in the day a "liberal" was someone who supported greater market freedom, more personal freedoms, less government in the lives of citizens. It was "liberal" as in liberty, freedom from the interference (or support?) of the government.

I'm sorry, man...most of us on this Y!A politics section are American. Here, liberalism is on the left and conservatism is on the right. Going too far either way gives you a statist government and too far in the center gives you what America has today: a government that never agrees on anything.