Barack Obama gave one of the most forceful declaration of liberal principles...
by any president in my lifetime.
"For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity -- until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm." - Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama, Jan. 21, 2013
Principles backed by action -- from the passage of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Matthew Sheppard Hate Crimes Act, to repeal of the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, to the refusal of the administration to defend challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, to ordering federal agencies to treat same sex spouses as equal to opposite sex spouses with regard to insurance and benefits, to ordering an end to deportation of undocumented immigrants brought to this country as minor children, etc., etc., etc.
The term "liberal" has been presently so overused that it has almost become meaningless. But, at the very least, a liberal political perspective would hold that the government has no place in dictating morality, and fairness and equality are the first imperatives of government.
There has been significant progress in advancing a number of genuine liberal principles in our society and government. The credit for that progress owes to the hard work of a lot of people, including our president and many wonderful Democratic representatives in Washington.
Of course there are problems. For instance, we are extremely concerned over assaults on our Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, and we can and should continue to push back hard on these issues. But the president has earned this liberal's respect for what he has accomplished.