   Neither left nor liberal has ever meant larger government: left means liberal because that's where the liberals sat; right means conservative because that's where the conservatives sat; liberal, more or less, meant natural rights, the social contract, secularism, and private property; and conservative meant those who wanted to conserve the absolute power of the monarchy, religious privilege, and the feudal system. In the USA, liberal/left has come to be associated with social democracy, whereas conservative/right is now associated with neoliberalism (the US libertarians are the classical liberals).  Of course, there's also the differences between conservative, paleoconservative, and neoconservative to take into account.  In any case, relating bipartisan politics to the size of government is an incredibly naïve view.     |    