Liberal means conservative?

I was looking into the definition of "liberalism" and this is what I found at Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

2 a often capitalized : a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity b : a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard

Now there are a few versions under this definition that include that would come close to the description of liberals today. But definitions 2 a & b seemed to be what a liberal is NOT. Ideals that contrast with this definition are: separation of church and state, abortion, tax hikes, free markets, gay marriage and implementation of social programs, just to name a few.

I looked into this a more today and was doing research on Wikipedia. I found an article by Jonah Goldberg of the National Review where he talks about today's conservatives having classical liberal/libertarian values. He wrote the article back at the end of 2001 in response to a libertarians who wrote for Reason magazine. He stated the following:

"Which is a shame because, as I pointed out in my column last Wednesday, Hayek argued that United States was the one place in the world where you could call yourself a "conservative" and be a lover of liberty — because we want to defend those institutions which preserve it. And that's why — despite a lot of propaganda from the folks at Reason — most conservatives are closer to classical liberals than a lot of Reason-libertarians."

One of the women I think that comes closest to "classical liberalism" is Tammy Bruce. A former president of the Los Angeles chapter of National Organization of Women (NOW) she wrote a great book a few years ago on what is wrong with liberals today. I read her book The New Thought Police and it is one of the best works that define what is wrong with the liberal movement today. I would recommend it for liberals and conservative. I don't expect it to change your political philosophy but it will point out a lot of flaws with today's liberalism.

I think this quote by the President Ronald Reagan puts it best:

[T]he very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals—if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

Leave it to the Gipper to explain it clearly. I took a few glances at the history/definition of conservatism and found some interesting things as well. I hope to have another post on this after doing research. Stay tuned,...