If you look at the pre-Woodstock/hippie culture in America, you see the phrase "liberal" applied to people in the Democratic Party who were for civil liberties (free speech, free press, etc. ) and who also believed in the New Deal and the idea of the safety net. This was back when the American Civil Liberties Union fought tooth and nail to let the Nazi Party march through Skokie, Illinois, and most of the Left supported the ACLU position as much as they hated the Nazis (1977).

Things started to change when the radical students of the 1960s/early 1970s started to make their way into positions of power. Obviously, a great many of them "sold out" and became yuppies, but the ones who remained radicals self-identified as "liberals" but were pushing a very different agenda. It's gotten to the point now where the Left is saying "hate speech isn't free speech", which is quite simply dead wrong, and where the Left is attempting to shut down discourse and debate. I can think of a great adjective to use to describe people who believe in controlling personal freedoms and having the state heavily regulate and tax private industry for the good of the nation. Of course, that adjective has lost all meaning these days too...