Songwronger, I think your idea of what Liberals are all about is more than just a little bit warped.

I consider myself a Liberal—a Classical Liberal—and I do not consider Socialists to be Liberal in nearly the same sense. Nor do most other Liberals that I know.

Classical Liberalism advocates civil liberties and political freedom, limited government, rule of law, and legally regulated Capitalism.

Classical Liberalism adopts Thomas Hobbes's theory of government, that governments are created by individuals to protect themselves from each another. Including the machinations of the very wealthy, which is the situation that prevails today.

A lot of people throw words like Liberal, Conservative, Socialist, Communist, Fascist, and other political terms around without knowing the least bit about what they mean. There is much more to it than the way you're tossing the term around.

I'd recommend that you get a good book on political science and read it carefully.

Don Firth