someone who is usually subjected to narrowminded hostility in his or her own time, but is vindicated by posterity. Many of the political figures we revere today were liberals in their own time.

Unfortunately, nobody on here has truly captured the meaning of "liberal." Liberal inherently implies desiring change or reform of the current system, whatever that system may be. Conservative is obviously the opposite; it describes something or someone who wants to conserve the status quo and reject change.
Some people get confused by the notion that the United States differs from the rest of the world in terms of its usage of liberal and conservative, but it does not. The reason it does not is because the economic system in place at the foundation of the US was based in a free market, not a restricted one. Therefore, in the US, fiscally conservative implies wanting to conserve what was originally present, a.k.a free market capitalism. Liberal economics in the US obviously steer away from that since, as it was already pointed out, liberal implies change.
In most other countries of the world, liberal economics implies gradually freeing markets more (becoming more capitalistic), instead of less. To some people (see previous posters), this is opposite the system we use in the US, but IT IS NOT. Liberal economics, a.k.a changing the economic system, in other countries means becoming more capitalistic because they originated from oppressive economic systems.
In summary, liberal means...

In general, have most of the good ideas, but are sadly represented on the Internet by whiny, insecure hypocrites (probably high schoolers) who complain (from the anonymosity of their computers) about not being able to criticize the US government or conservatives in general, and then completely SPAZ OUT when anyone DARES criticize their ideas. Free speech is a two-way street mm'kay?

Notice that just about all the definitions that criticize liberals have been deleted or are up for deletion. Granted, some of them were stupid/hateful, but what does that tell you about liberals being "open minded"?

Well the truth is that most liberals in real life are open-minded and cool, but on the web basically act like bizarro-Republicans and aren't actually "liberal" at all, just the political equivalent of poseurs.

1. Derived from "Liberty", a liberal is literally someone who believes in freedom. This includes freedom of religion, freedom from tyranny, and free markets.

However, American liberals have rejected freedom of the market, and have economically mixed liberal ideals with socialist ideals to create the American liberal. This is someone who supports personal freedom in social issues, and mixed economic initiatives to create greater equality within capitalism.

Typical issues that liberals support are less restrictions on abortions, more restrictions on guns, the equality of genders, races, religions and sexual orientations, and the Separation of Church and State. The American liberal would add on such things as socialized healthcare, environmentalism and greater support for the poor through welfare and greater spending on public services.

Liberal is sometimes used as an insult by their enemies, conservatives. This occurs in the United States, elsewhere liberal is usually a complement. As a result, many liberals dub themselves progressives, which does not have the same negative connotations.

I wish to begin by saying that no definition of Liberal can be found without some personal bias of the author. I myself am a liberal, and although I believe this to be a comprehensive definition, others will define Liberal in a more callous sense. They are mistaken, but that's just my opinion. "Baby killer", for instance, is merely a stereotype of a liberal.

Of the left wing in the political spectrum; liberal is a broad term usually lost in the flurry of stereotypical distinctions like Democrat, Anarchist, Libertarian, Green, or Socialist. Liberals typically value personal freedom and the well-being of others over their own moral opinions. Liberals have been the moving force in American culture for centuries, with the conservatives being the holding force. Liberals were responsible for the emancipation and suffrage of blacks, women's suffrage, the teaching of evolution, and other political decisions considered controversial by the right. Atheists are typically associated with the left, as are gays, blacks, "pro choice" proponents, and American intellectuals. It is confusing to associate either liberals or conservatives with America's financial base, because both sides have wealthy families. America's religious base is more commonly aligned with conservatives, and thus most attacks on liberals are fueled by religious fervor (criticizing liberals on being pro-choice on abortion, on not supporting the War in Iraq, on calling for stricter enforcement of separation ...

A truly compassionate person. One who thinks that there is more to life than making money. Unlike conservatives, believes that government has a responsiblity to take care of ALL citizens, not just the white, wealth males.

Many liberals are smart people with reasonalbe views(I am not a liberal,however not conservative either.) However, Many retarted teenagers like the ones that go to my school just watch MTV and say, hay Mike Jones hates Bush, that must mean he sucks. These are the people giving liberals a bad name. Liberals and Conservatives need to stop bashing each other and just fucking do something about the world.