I'm not sure when the term liberal became a bad word. At one point in world history, the word liberal was associated with a political philosophy that was similar to today's "conservatism." Those liberals fought for individual rights, private property and smaller government during the Age of Enlightenment when they were up against the abuses of the growing monarchical nation-states. Today the word liberal is associated with a belief in big government, the redistribution of wealth and group rights. Group rights are important to liberals.

From time to time you will hear the term "classical liberalism." This refers to the original philosophy of liberalism and is used to distinguish from today's ideology of liberalism. Note the difference between the term philosophy and the term ideology. Philosophy is the seeking of truth (this is difficult). Ideology is the seeking of preferred results (this is easy). Today