Thomas Sowell‘s latest Human Events column explains why “liberals” and “conservatives” are mislabeled:

Most of us would probably regard the current administration in
Washington– both the White House and the Congress– as “liberal,” even
though the word “progressive” may be more in vogue.

Does the sweeping legislation empowering federal officials to tell
doctors, patients, hospitals, and insurance companies what to do, when
it comes to medical care, sound like leaving individuals the maximum
space to live their lives as they choose? ??? ???

Communities that have had overwhelmingly liberal elected officials
for decades abound in nanny state regulations, micro-managing everything
from home-building to garbage collection. San Francisco is a classic
example. Among its innumerable micro-managing laws is one recently
passed requiring that gas stations must remove the little levers that
allow motorists to pump gas into their cars without having to hold the
nozzle.

Liberals are usually willing to let people violate the traditional
standards of the larger society but crack down on those who dare to
violate liberals’ own notions and fetishes.

…

As for conservatism, it has no specific political meaning, because
everything depends on what you are trying to conserve. In the last days
of the Soviet Union, those who were trying to maintain the Communist
system were widely– and correctly– described as “conservatives,”
though they had nothing in common with such conservatives as William F.
Buckley or Milton Friedman.

Professor Friedman for years fought a losing battle against being
labeled a conservative. He considered himself a liberal in the original
sense of the word and wrote a book titled “The Tyranny of the Status
Quo.” Friedman proposed radical changes in things ranging from the
public schools to the Federal Reserve System.

But he is remembered today as one of the great conservatives of our
time. Great, yes. But conservative? It depends on what you mean by
conservative.

Sowell’s remarks remind me of the musings of another well-known liberal.