While "liberal" has many meanings, as do many things, I must remark that at least in the "right vs. left" area not all left leaners are ignorant of that idea.
Remember, for example, Tipper Gore's campaign against explicit song lyrics, which I seem to recall resulted in a move by retail chains to self-regulate in order to avoid legal issues. It may not have lasted, and of course it depends on how much money you stand to lose, but sometimes it's easier to comply than to fight, even if you win.
Many years ago, I also heard a "Fresh Air" interview with Andrea Dworkin, who, as some might remember, was of the opinion that "pornograpy equals rape" and as such, a great advocate of the transitive property of evil: that if pornography equals rape, then being an agent of its production equals it, and if that, then being an agent of its distribution equals it, and if so, being involved in its sale equals it....and thus, quite openly, she suggested that the way to end the evil of pornography was to file arrest charges against the proprietors of convenience stores and the drivers of delivery trucks for their complicity in rape. e.t.a. This being her response to the fact that cases against the producers of what she considered equal to rape had won their cases when prosecuted. This of course would be obviously a nuisance charge, winnable at any level by the defendants, but she rightly supposed that if done, it would prove so expensive (likely including the deportation of immigrant convenience-store clerks) that it would force self-regulation of the industry, even though the industry itself had fought the fight and won. She openly stated that her crusade warranted the sacrifice of democracy.
This differs only in kind and perhaps choice of victim from the practice of police charging people and throwing them in jail for charges they know will be dismissed, knowing as they do that the victory will damage the lives and livelihoods of their victims anyway, while they continue to enjoy immmunity.
So yes, I think the Republicans have refined this idea and proliferated it and brought it into the mainstream, but they did not invent it.
People are fond of pointing to these Pyrrhic victories as proof that "the system works," but even though lifeboats work, the ship still sinks. The best democracy happens before the trial, not after.
