On Democrats and Liberals

The twin fights against communists and against mobsters in unions, especially but not exclusively in the film industry, and in foreign policy and in government service was lead by Liberal Democrats more than by Isolationist Republicans in the 1930s to early 1950s. In the North the losing local fight against urban mobsters was lead by Republicans with the Democratic machines being corrupted. In the South the racist and Isolationist wing of the Democrats remained in control after the GOP had been wiped out after Reconstruction. After WW-II the GOP, which was always anti-racist, became more Internationalist. As the Marxists infiltrated and took over the Democrats many liberals migrated toward Eisenhower's GOP and, having seen the consequences of the corruption brought by big government, became more conservative. That happened with Ronald Reagan and Frank Sinatra and others. The moral and criminal corruption mentioned above also provided openings for organized crime, often based in the same communities the Democrats exploited as voting blocs. That lead to even more corruption of the Democratic Party as an institution in a vicious cycle of debasement.

In New York state there are both a Liberal and a Conservative party in addition to the Democrats and the Republicans. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives openly functioned as consciouses for their larger siblings. The Liberal Party of New York was founded as an explicitly anti-communist party for liberal trade unionists to influence the Democrats.
From the wiki:

The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 by George Counts as an alternative to the American Labor Party, which had been formed earlier as a vehicle for leftists who supported the presidential candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt but were uncomfortable with the Democratic Party. Despite enjoying some successes, the American Labor Party was tarred by the perceived influence of communists in its organization, which led David Dubinsky of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Alex Rose of the Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and Ben Davidson to leave in order to found the Liberal Party as an explicitly anti-communist alternative. In the 1944 elections, both the American Labor and Liberal parties supported Roosevelt for President, but by 1948 the two parties diverged, with the Liberals nominating Harry S. Truman and the American Labor Party nominating Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace. Non-Marxist ALP leaders like Dean Alfange helped lead a walkout to the Liberal Party

The party itself sank into corruption and is no longer a meaningful force. Its presence on the New York ballot has been replaced by that of the Working Families Party, which is Marxist front and reincarnation of the New Party and ACORN that Obama associated with.