>You seem to be confusing political party affiliation with liberal vs. conservative. No question that in Lincoln's time (and probably in TR's), the Republicans were the more liberal party. But there's never been an exact correlation.

It's mindblowing to think that the political parties have flip flopped in that sense, this same thing happened in Canada and the UK too. I think a similar flip flop happened with which party represented the "common man" or the "working man". The left wing had this locked up until some time in the 80's, then the right figured out how to appeal to this group.