'liberal' makes me thing of Kant or Adam Smith and neoliberal makes me think of Keohane and Nye and Liberal makes me think of old Paddy A shagging his secretary. I studied a fair bit of poltics at university but I can't for the life of me think of way to define its meaning in the way Americans use it
i.e


Trotskitie world revolution socialists - liberal
ACLU members - liberal puffs
people who read Readers' Digest - pinko liberals
the French- Euro geek liberals

This is a bit tongue in cheek.. But seriously how can one term be used to describe such a range of people and opinions?