but the “centrists” still want to call themselves “liberals” because they have morally normal views on the wedge isssues.

Which they abandon at the first hint of pushback.

I mean you're absolutely right, but on the other hand this is what it's always been. This country was founded by the first great, and most successful liberal Revolution. Liberals only believe in capitalism. They believed in private property, and by that I mean slaves. They believed in only rich white land owning males voting. And the definition of white was a lot fucking more narrow. Anglo-Saxon motherfuckers. Frankly the country's always been fairly far to the right. Other than a handful of very brief time periods, in which left leaning liberals were dragged kicking and screaming towards decency, the Overton window has always been somewhat to the right. Not this far obviously but still.