Tmoneyshot
If you are going to quote the ultra liberal Wikipedia then I see it is only fair to have some balance. Here is the definition of the modern day Liberal according to Conservapedia.
A liberal is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons. There are no coherent liberal standards, and often a liberal is merely someone who uses many words to say nothing.
A liberal supports many of the following political positions and practices.
* Taxpayer-funded and/or legalized abortion
* Censorship of teacher-lead prayer in classrooms and school sponsored events
* Support for gun control
* Support of obscenity and pornography as a First Amendment right[1]
* Income redistribution, usually through progressive taxation
* Government-rationed medical care, such as Universal Health Care
* Taxpayer-funded and government-controlled public education
* The denial of inherent gender differences
* Insisting that men and women have the same access to jobs in the military
* Legalized same-sex marriage
* Implementation of affirmative action
* Political correctness
* Support of labor unions
* Teaching acceptance of promiscuity through sexual "education" rather than teaching abstinence from sex.[2]
* A "living Constitution" that is reinterpreted as liberals prefer, rather than how it was intended
A satirical conception of the liberal brain.
A satirical conception of the liberal brain.
* Government programs to rehabilitate criminals
* Abolition of the death penalty
* Environmentalism[3]
* Disarmament treaties
* Globalism
* Opposition to an interventionalist American foreign policy [4]
* Opposition to full private property rights[5]
* Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine
* In 2005, it was reported by CBS News that liberals were the most likely supporters of the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution is a key component of atheistic ideologies in the Western World.
* Opposition to domestic wire-tapping as authorized in the Patriot Act
* Calling anyone they agree with a "professor" regardless of whether he earned that distinction based on a real peer review of his work (see, e.g., Richard Dawkins and Barack Obama).
Liberalism in North America today
Democrats and many media outlets in the U.S. are often liberal.[8]
* Some argue that liberals typically support economic policy similar to that of fascism. [9]
* Liberals claimed a monopoly on compassion, decency, and social justice (as defined by themselves), posing as the sole defenders of civic virtue against a horde of backwoodsmen, racists, and religious fanatics. [4]
There's another goal, from my point of view, which is to try to lay the groundwork for a radical political force which would conceive of itself as distinctly to the left of moderate, reformist American liberals. And that has two aspects. One is to try to change that liberalism, to transform it by analysis, critique, and activism; the second is to build a radical movement which would be an autonomous force in its own right, which would be distinct from the traditional American liberal consensus. This radical part of the program involves not simply supporting the liberal students against conservative students and conservative professors, but trying to act on them, to push them to the left. It also involves trying to find and support, even trying to help create, networks of radical students in law school and of radical professors around the country ? students and teachers who see themselves as wanting to go a lot further than most people want to go.
Historical Liberalism
In history, the word "liberal" has meant different things at different times, and was associated with individual liberty in prior centuries. In the postwar period, liberals supported government intervention in the economy and welfare state policies, as well as peaceful coexistence with the communist block, which are not liberal policies in the sense of classical liberalism. After the end of the cold war, with the demise of socialism and communism, many liberals embraced some ideas from economic neo-liberalism, and coined it the "Third Way". In the area of national security and foreign policy liberals in the U.S. failed to define a consistent stance, even after the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the war in Iraq. Liberals generally support affirmative action, gay marriage, and abortion.[16]
Original meaning: Classical Liberalism
Liberalism is a political philosophy with freedom as its core value. The term was originally applied to supporters of individual liberties and equal rights, but, in America, the term has come to represent a movement of social change that often conflicts with conservative values such as moral values and tradition.
See Classical Liberalism. Compare Libertarianism.
Alternative meanings of 'liberal'
One definition of liberal is anything that is not conservative. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary includes this definition of "liberal":[17]
* Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas ...