Why most conservatives are secretly liberals

The Washington Post's The Monkey Cage ^ | March 6, 2014 | John Sides

[Pecos]

That’s why I prefer the term “Constitutionalist”. That simplifies the question.

[gusty]

Yes indeed, you are in the company of every President from Washington to McKinley. In politics, words are important. The term “liberal” used to mean free markets and free men in the 19th Century, while “conservative” meant absolute monarchy, clerical tyranny and mercantile economics, think of Czarist Russia and Habsburg Austria. About a hundred years or so ago we allowed Socialists snatch our label away and then we relabeled ourselves “conservative” the same as the ideological enemies of the United States in the 19th Century.
The true “classic liberal” has been the true revolutionary fighting for freedom in the entire history of the world. All other movements are varieties of statist tyrannies. For us to sucede we need to reclaim the freedom label in some form or another, if not we will continue muddling along.