[protomyth]

At their extremes the modern version of the word liberal and conservative are pretty frightening. Both want to be deeply involved in aspects of your life because they can "make it better". Which aspects depend on right / left bent. The modern liberal is the CA government and Mayor Bloomberg, and this does fit under their purview of things they like to control.

I would imagine when you think liberal (could be wrong), you are thinking freedom of thought and action. That meaning of the word is so long gone (much as "conservative" doesn't mean what it used to).

[mikeash]

Freedom of thought and action, yes, but also a solid social safety net and things like universal health care.

I agree about the extremes, but you didn't specify that before, which made it pretty alienating.

[protomyth]

I wasn't the original poster, sorry.

Having lived under US government-provided health care, I'll skip it and try something else. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsf9QvZD1Ic

[mikeash]

Apologies for the identity mixup. I've lived under socialized health care elsewhere and it was fine. The US government seems to take the attitude of, "Government doesn't work, let us demonstrate." I think it ends up as a self-perpetuating cycle, rather than anything that's inherent to the idea itself.