Lots of things have changed over the years. Republican stopped meaning conservative years ago. It has a return to conservatism when Reagan was elected. After that it went back to follow the left as the left moved further left.
But then prior to the Progressive era of the early 20th century, "liberal" meant what "conservative" means today. The word "liberal" was hijacked by the Progressives. They didn't then and still don't know understand just has far from liberty socialism is. Liberty and liberal comes from the same root. This is why Libertarians didn't try to take liberal back. The left had completely ruined the word "liberal".
Classical liberals (liberals prior to the Progressive era) believed in small and limited government and all political power residing in the hands of the individual citizen. They were also very committed to Christianity and agreed with John Adams when he said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other," Without morals we have no liberty and without liberty we have no morals. Without both we have no prosperity.
Progressives reject both liberty and morality and that is why socialism (in all its variations) gives us poverty, misery and death.
