A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of the little minds
At least that might explain some of the positions of liberals:
For instance, she has supported the work of feminists all along. She, in her book, Greta, as you know, gives credit to Title IX, says if Title IX was not there, she would not have been able to go to college because she couldn't afford to do it. She gives full credit. Do you know how much aggravation and pressure went on trying to fight the conservatives in Congress and get that legislation passed when I was in Congress?
How does that matter that feminists had to fight conservatives in Congress to get Title IX legislation passed? Conservatives then are not conservatives now, for one, and even if we are talking about the same conservatives, are liberals saying that conservatives cannot (or shouldn't) change their minds on anything?
Conservatives are, rightfully, wary of sudden changes. We want any changes to be gradual. We want to be able to roll back the changes if the changes we make to our society turn out to be harmful. But that does not mean we don't see benefits of certain changes.
Even supposing that small-government conservatives were against, say, women's suffrage or emancipation of slaves (trust me, they were not; they just wanted federal government out of states' affairs), tell me if you can find any conservative today who actually wants to remove women's right to vote—or re-institute slavery (in fact, the only slavery-praising quotes I have seen come from a liberal making up and claiming that Rush Limbaugh said something that he didn't).
Liberals were good for something once. At one point, they did stand for liberty (which is why the label "liberal" stuck, even after the label was no longer true). But, in foolish pursuit of consistency, they are pushing even more power for women, minorities, and unions, because that's the direction they have been going in and they think they need to continue in that direction. The concept of equality and moderation (i.e. that once some major goals are accomplished, that's where you stop, or at least try to balance the power and "rights" of various groups) has no place in the liberal vocabulary.
Just like trade unions were good for something at some point, liberal ideology was good and honorable in the long, long times past. And, just like trade unions today, we are better off without liberal ideology than with it.