Conservatives often make this charge, and quite effectively, that liberals wish to govern your individual lives, in turn eroding your personal freedom.  Liberals, as per usual, always find it necessary to defend and define to justify their positions.
   Turn the argument on its head and we find the claim to be complete rubbish.  Is is the liberal or the conservative that wishes to shape morality through legislation? It seems obvious that the liberal is inclusive, non-judgemental, whereas the conservative wishes to mold society to fit into a narrow band of perceived morality.  The liberal understands the subjectivity of morality, personal choices and freedoms, the conservative unaccepting and rigid.
   The claim that conservatives believe people should be free of government interference is pure propaganda.  Which philosophy wishes to censor, based on an arbitrary compass.  If liberals actually believe the average citizen is bereft of the ability to make their own decisions, why then is it the liberal who often sides with the common man against the bigger institutionalized forces?  Is in not an acknowledgement of the inequalities, rather than a statement of personal freedom.  The conservative is the one who actually has the low opinion of man, he/she needs direction to override their primitive tendencies.  This guidance, whether legislation or pressure, admits that man is inherently evil and must have laws lest he acts on his nature.  The liberal sees man in a better light, not afraid to give the common man power for fear he will not handle it accordingly.
   Interesting that in terms of democracy and freedom, it has historically been those on the left who have fought to move the bar, whereas the conservative has fought liberty, emancipation and personal freedoms.  The liberal says, smoke pot, who am I to dictate, the conservative wags the moral finger, claims corruption and forces retribution.  Who is it again that feels the average citizen can or cannot control and guide their own lives??  
  We on the left need to stop defending liberalism, instead showing the conservative slanders for the house of cards they really are.  When we do that we may see a change in the way the world liberalism is perceived, maybe it may even become palatable again.