I am a liberal and I am darn proud to say it.
I'm so sorry to hear that.
However, modern leftists have taken it upon themselves to redefine many words.
Won't find many Liberals willing to admit that.
Liberals want the power concentrated at the level closest to the people as possible.
That has not been my observation...
at all!
Liberals believe that the power belongs to the people if at all possible.
Again, that has not been my experience with Liberals...
at all!
Leftist groups, like Communists and Nazi's, want the Federal Government to have any power they can possibly have.
Nice to finally find a Liberal who correctly recognizes that Nazis are, in fact, left-wing.
They want the people to have only the power over things the government can not possibly hope to control.
I am Conservative because my liberal beliefs cause me to be conservative. We should do liberal things conservatively. (Because conservatives seem to do things better.)
Common sense conservatives doing liberal things is the best way to get good things done.
Everything our founders did was in an attempt to free the people from oppressive governments.
Everything the leftists want to do would enslave the people and give all the control to a huge bureaucracy in Washington.
We have seen leftist governments ruin everything they touch. We know what leftists have to Cuba, Russia, China, and Iran.
You sound more like a "Classical Liberal" vs. a modern-day Liberal. There is a huge difference. As a conservative Libertarian I would also consider myself a "Classical Liberal", as well.
But how would I define a "Liberal". Well, when we say "Liberal" we mean the modern-day Liberal that I would describe as:
1. Anti-Christian and militantly so. The only true religion of the modern-day Liberal is climate change and abortion is it's sacrament.
2. Anti traditional-family and militantly so. The traditional family must be destroyed as it is the "sworn enemy" of all things LGBTQ+.
3. Anti-American and militantly so--we cannot teach our history and we must remove all vestiges of our past (tearing down statues, for example).
4. Anti individual-rights and militantly so. Those crazy things like freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the freedom to keep and bare must not be tolerated. As such, Liberals are...
5. Anti Constitution. We can't allow those things that protect an individuals freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the freedom to keep and bare.
6. Anti-peace. The shear number of riots, lootings and fires these last couple of years fairly demonstrate that their only acceptable avenues of negotiation is violence.
7. Anti-Capitalist / Anti-meritocracy. The poor aren't poor because of their own life-decisions. They're poor because of the rich. As such, capital must be seized by Liberals from the rich and "fairly" "re-distributed" to the poor unfortunates because, ultimately, "you didn't build that!". After all, it is the Liberals moral duty to save us from ourselves.
8. Anti-civilization. The modern-day Liberals understands that individuals must not be held accountable for their actions. Such accountability is not "fair"! "Everyone" knows that bad behavior is the result of bad society. It's not the individual's fault. It's society's fault! As such, we must defund the police, eliminate cash bail, refuse to prosecute crimes and release all those "innocent" rapist, thieves and other miscellaneous violent offenders. How could we ever imprison the "innocent" for what is essentially society's fault? As such, Liberals are...
9. Anti-Traditional Values. America is a bad place. Therefore, Liberals understand that America must be re-created along Socialist principles. Only in this way can social-justice, economic-justice, racial-justice, climate-justice--
whatever!--can be obtained.
10. Anti-borders. As America is such a bad place defending her borders is simply a pointless task. Besides all this land use to belong to them anyway...
whoever "them" is.
That should about do it for now.