dukakis became clinton became obama, and the term 'liberal' ended up merged with the concept of 'neo-liberal', and pulled to the right of the spectrum.
i use the term pretty classically, as though it belongs to the period when liberals and anarchists were interchangeable. i then extrapolate broad concepts from it. i'd rather vote for a socialist party than a liberal party.
but, that doesn't change the reality that, to a lot of people, 'very liberal' means you read ayn rand, work for the koch brothers and follow alan greenspan on twitter.
