I'm guessing parent meant liberalism as the term is used in Europe. Roughly, liberal(EUR)=conservative(US), although mostly I see both terms used with the "neo" prefix nowadays.

Yes! It's an important difference. In Denmark for instance, the term "liberal" in politics denotes free-market enthusiasm and almost nothing else. I can imagine this would cause some misunderstandings when read into an American context.

Economic liberalism i.e. lowered regulation and absence of tariffs. "Liberal" the way Americans use it is an Americanism, and "neoliberal" was a term invented to talk about economic liberalism in the US.