What did "liberal" mean to voters in 1988?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

1. Crime was a major issue in the 1988 Presidential campaign and liberal was successfully conflated with being "soft-on-crime"
2. "Liberal" also could mean being a relic from a bygone era where do-gooders tried to solve complex social problems with greater government involvement. I don't know if it was Ed Koch or Dave Horowitz who referred to as being "mugged by reality", and in Ed Koch's case, his perspective on low-income housing in the '60's or '70's pushed him to the right.
3. I am sure there was some residual image of an "anti-war" fanatic.

Even Michael Dukakis ran, as I recall, having been branded by certain media outlets favorable to him, as "post-liberal"--a technocrat who would solve problems through competence, rather than ideology. He did not successfully escape the label, obviously.