The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, released an ad Friday calling Kerry "the most liberal man in the Senate" and "the most liberal person ever to run for president."which indicates that being liberal has negative connotations in the US. After checking a US dictionary, which has the major definitions of liberal being:
The only negative definition they had was
- Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
- Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
(Obsolete) Morally unrestrained; licentious.which doesn't seem to apply to John Kerry, unless there's some information about him that doesn't reach Australia.
In this country, liberal is such a positive term that parties from both sides of politics are associated with it. The conservative party was founded on the bold idea of naming itself the Liberal Party. At no time were their policies liberal, so it seems to be a sly way of forcing people to think liberal when talking of that party. More straightforwardly, the parties to the left, Labor and the Greens are both seen as being liberal in policy.