Okay so, given complicated the differences between variations of liberalism are, Merriam Webster is really not a good source here. That's not what liberalism means in most of the world. That said, the Democratic Party is definitely classical liberal (also known as neoliberal), rather than social liberal, which is what you're talking about, and that also exists so I wasn't 100% correct either, but either way "liberal" is absolutely not a synonym with "progressive".