The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality of result. It's equality of opportunity. There's a fundamental difference.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The idea that you earn things - that you earn respect, that you earn income, responsibility, the vote, punishment... these ideas are anathema to the liberal mind.
A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.
A liberal is a man who will give away everything he doesn't own.
Liberalism is assisting quality of life, whatever you may choose.
Education can give you a skill, but a liberal education can give you dignity.
A liberal is a man who is willing to spend somebody else's money.
The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.
A liberal to me is one who - and it suits some of the dictionary definitions - is unbeholden to any specific belief or party or group or person, but makes up his or her mind on the basis of the facts and the presentation of those facts at the time. That defines what I am.
I happen to agree with many of the liberal emphasis on compassion, justice and equality. I just disagree that it's the government's role to provide everything.
Conservatives often say that we should care not about equality of outcomes but about equality of opportunity.