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I read an article recently about how Orange County has become strongly Democratic over the last couple of election cycles though. It's part of a broader trend of "Los Angelesization" of southern California.
You confused me with 'liberal' in the title, and 'conservative' in the text. Surely even in the US, liberal & conservative are not the same? >

Not op, but maybe it's an ESL situation.
From a strict, classical sense, liberal and conservative aren't opposed, Pprogressive and conservative are. The opposite (again in a classical sense) of liberal is authoritarian. Most of the conservative US started using liberal as a pejorative in the late 60s during the cou ter culture revolution, since it was college-age driven with liberal arts educations. ironically since in that sense it means something along to "holistic, well rounded " education, as opposed to a trade school that teaches one specific topic. >

This is a very good point! And it needs to be reinforced.
The traditional, mainstream ideology in the US is Liberalism. True conservatives are people who want a more conservative form of Liberalism, while progessives want a more progressive form of Liberalism.
People who advocate authoritarianism, or theocracy, or racism or sexism are not conservatives. They are radicals who are opposed to liberalism.
People who advocate communism, or radical redistribution of wealth, or abolishment of private property are not progressives. They are radicals who are opposed to liberalism.
Actual left-wing radicals are very rare in the US. Rightwing radicals number in the tens of millions. >

The only people trying to reinforce this point in the U.S. are Progressives and people trying to find a new word for 'liberal' so they can feel special and differentiate themselves from the rest of the left.  You often seen the term 'leftist' used as well.  It all means the same shit.  In American politics when someone is informally using the term 'liberal' they are generally not referencing classical liberalism.  Otherwise they would specifically reference 'classical liberalism.'
Progressives often try to confuse the language to push an agenda, and if you are making that point and you refuse to identify which liberalism you are referencing then it loses all meaning.
Progressivism is a branch of that big tent Liberalism, if you read early writings they talk about 'progressive liberalism' and 'old liberalism' and 'new liberalism.'  'New' liberalism being progressivism.
Radical just means you want change rapidly, conservatives and liberals are not necessarily radicals both can be, any group can.  Reactionaries are people who want a return to the status quo. >

Usually the exceptions are very very wealthy urban areas (Orange County, CA)