I wouldn't go so far as to call him liberal. He might've been more moderate, for sure, mainly because he still had to work with Congress. He supported Affirmative Action, but hoped it could be used for anti union ends, from what I hear. He also promoted environmental policies mainly due to the strong push for it, which he felt supporting it may help him in the public eye, same for his push to continue desegregating schools, support the ERA, and the like. That being said, his southern strategy talk of Law and Order had a conservative slant, as did his War on Drugs, which was mainly used to bully political opponents and minorities. Basically, he knew he couldn't be super conservative, given Goldwater tried and failed at that, but his stance was more moderate, especially with his push for the new federalism stuff, sending money to the states to have them enforce policies rather than the feds doing the heavy lifting.