I'm peripherally aware that the word liberal means a lot of different things in different places, and I'm curious if the same holds for other things. So let's share the political terminology of our country and language!

In probably the least interesting post, I'm from the United States of America.
Everyone in the political sphere believes in a constitutionally limited and democratic government, with the exception, perhaps, of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. I hope I managed this without any nasty biases. If anyone has any corrections or additions go right ahead.

• Liberals, leftists, or progressives (terms don't represent differing political pedigree, people are just whimiscal about what they call themselves) very generally believe the state should provide some modicum of livelihood for the poor, that the rich should be taxed more greatly, that military action should only be taken against immediate threats, that equality should be strongly valued in society, that crime should be considered a symptom of societal problems, and that privacy and freedom of expression should be protected.
• Conservatives or rightists (as above) very generally believe that most forms of welfare are anathema to society, that the tax code should be greatly simplified, that national defense should be strongly proactive, that Judeo-Christian values should be cherished, that crime should be treated harshly, that some levels of privacy pose a threat to national defense, and that some forms of expression are so deeply offensive that they should be criminalized.
• Libertarians very generally believe that welfare is an unethical redistribution of wealth, that taxation is state coercion, that military action should only serve as defense (some dissent), that individual liberty is deeply important, that crime should be treated harshly, that the government has no business monitoring it's subjects or regulating their speech.
• Socialist, communist, and fascist are terms only ever used derogatively, and without any specific meaning attached.

Canadian politics are intertwined with American politics, for economic and geographic reasons.
Usage of liberal or conservative generally refers to one of two parties:

Liberal, Grits, Reds: Federal/Provincial Political Party that consciously tries to occupy the centre field of the political ring, believing that this is the key to their popularity. So there are 'conservative liberals' to balance it out or win seats in areas where they couldn't otherwise win. Some right wing politicians join this party for greater electability. Sympathetic to American Democratic interests.
Conservative, Tories, Blues: Federal Political Party that has most candidates take certain 'right-wing' stances on the issues. Formerly was more left wing ("red tory"), but now largely neo-conservative ("blue tory") since it's recent merger from two separate parties. Sympathetic to American Republican interests.

Two other major political parties exist, that never gain control of the federal government.

Progressive: Not used in Canada. Liberal is not an insult so there is no reason for an alternative word.
Libertarian: If they exist here in fair quantities, I've never heard from them.
Communist: I never hear this word outside of self-identified communists.
Socialist: Sometimes a major party, the NDP, might be referred to as such.
Fascist: Often, American Republican

Ideology and policies aren't usually at the centre of issues and election outcomes, but instead whatever horrible (mild) scandal the current/former party embellished in.

Communist ideology was spread very rapidly during the 30s and during the cold war and many major figures had ties to Moscow, sometimes directly, usually through close relationships with organisations with links to the soviets. As a result liberalism from the 30s onward believe the same tenets.

1: The belief marx-derived ideologies as the only solution to problems target populations feel strongly about and pinning political opponents as aides to crony capitalists, especially those which compete with them for political support from target populations.
2: Extensive use of marxist arguments, without stating the origin of their reasonning.
3: Since most of their assertions are incorrect, manipulation of people's emotions, demagoguery and extremism are common. While this is not unusual in politics it tends to permeate target groups quite strongly, young adults for example are targetted to the extent that there are now liberal arts colleges in the US that teach an exclusively "progressive" agenda.

>>3
i've yet to meet any liberals who believe in a material dialect or alienation of labor or commodity fetishism or worldwide revolution or the bourgeoisie nature of democracy or the labor theory of value or class consciousness or gattungswesen or the base and superstructure view of modern civilization or the identification of classes by means of production or some sort of objective emperical scientific quality of their beliefs or marx's crazy moon history of humanity.
but y'know, whatever. have a blast, keep up the good work lowering this board's level of discussion.

> liberalism from the 30s onward

liberalism died 30-50 years ago