Classsical 19th century Liberalism advocated the virtues of private property, a laissez-faire market economy, and the legally enshrined rights of the citizen. Liberals usually defined themselves in opposition to socialists and communists, and later, totalitarianism and collectivism. 'Liberals' prevented a communist takeover of Germany in 1919, by murdering Rosa Luxemburg. 'Liberals' may have prevented a military coup or communist takeover of the United States, during the Depression of the 1930's (Roosevelt and his New Deal inspired people to struggle on,he gave them hope, even if his policies didn't work very well). Gradually, Liberalism began to believe that government should assume more and more responsibilties, due in part to pressure from other factions (to steal socialist thunder, and dilute their argument/appeal).

As Liberalism began to disentegrate in the US in the 1970's, what eventually took its place was politically correct corporate, and corporate-inspired Pseudo-Liberalism. Democrats began to imitate the Republican party( the debacle in Chicago 1968 triggered their long decline) adopting most of its socio-economic program by the late 1980's. Extremist PC factions partly took over,arguing over silly things like the use of religious symbols in the courts, or whether or not fur should be banned,unaware that their ideas were concocted inside mega -corporate boardrooms. The best evidence of this can be observed in the rise of Bill Clinton- in Arkansas he was 'owned' by the chicken magnate Tyson, and as President for eight years he retained the monetarist Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The primary focus during this time was to protect investors,mainly by controlling inflation in order to preserve interest rate gains on bonds and other certificates. The function of political correctness and focus on so-called 'social justice'issues is meant to deflect attention away from the fact that the Dems are almost identical to the Republicans, when it comes to the economy and, now, most current foreign and domestic policy. Both parties voted overwhelming in favor of the Patriot Act, the creation of Homeland Security, both voted for the illegal and unecessary war against Iraq,both have allowed our borders to be overun by millions of illiterate illegal immigrants, and both parties worked hard to pass the sovreignty shredding Nafta, Cafta, and WTO treaties and agreements, etc.Both parties are so one-sidedly in favor of Israel that Pat Buchanon once characterized congress as "Israeli occupied territory." Both are in and out of power periodically, and the net effect has been an erosion of civil rights, the continued degredation of the environment, and a much diminished middle class struggling to survive.