The way the right wing bandies about the word "liberal" with the first "L" drawn out long, like it's a horrible insult -- yes, it's totally enraging. When folks on the right (many in my family) call me that and expect me to recoil, my response is: I'm not a liberal; I'm a leftist.
Then, for fun and education, and while they're knocked off kilter for a moment. I quickly explain that the founding fathers were "liberals"; they founded a "liberal democracy"; "liberal", "liberty" and "libertarian" are closely related words; and they are probably more "liberal" than they know.
Ok, so this doesn't change their politics. But since the right has been so successful in the semantics game, it's easier to just explode these ossified categories (e.g., replace them with something fresh and loaded) than to try to return earlier meanings to words like "liberal". It's always more fun to be on the offense than defense.
Other fun memes to try out on the right: "free-market fundamentalist" instead of fiscal conservative (thanks to Cornell West for this);
"Christianist" instead of "Christian"; etc.