As I understand it, the term gradually changed largely, but not entirely, because of the New Deal policies, in relation to the shifting roles of the republican and democratic parties. The democratic party had historically been affiliated with the term, and continued to be affiliated through party and liberal philosophical ideology shifts.

Additionally, the meaning of liberalism was shaped by liberal philosophers, such as John Dewey and T.H. Green. According to Isaiah Berlin (and referenced by J Richard Piper in Ideologies and Institutions), these philosophers interpreted the liberal value of "freedom" to mean positive freedom for granting "a capacity of doing or enjoying something worth doing or enjoying", instead of the classical interpretation of libralism as negative freedom (freedom from governmental regulations).

This manifested itself gradually into an ideology shift to mean more of a freedom from poverty, misfortune, and injustice instead of a freedom from government.

Some further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_liberalism_in_the_United_States

Ideologies and Institutions: American Conservative and Liberal Governance By J. Richard Piper

We've had to remove a lot of off-topic comments from this thread. If you're going to answer this question please make sure you stick to the history of the term "liberal" in the United States and avoid commentary on modern politics. And, as always, make sure your answers come from in-depth knowledge of the subject and are substantiated by historical literature.

Can you (or someone) explain the difference between these two different meanings of liberalism?