1) there is no difference between the democrats and the republicans, the demopublicans. whichever party is in power we get more intervention, foreign and domestic.  make no mistake, central power (government, banking media) intervention had alot to do with our current financial and economic problems.

2) we have been moving left as a country for decades, most times slowly (ie frog in pot on stove) and sometimes quickly (new deal, great society, now).

as always, we must define our terms, keep it simple:

liberal: more government (taxes, spending, entitlements, DEBT, rules, etc.)

conservative:  less government

"the essense of freedom is the limitation of (central) government"