Patriarch embraces Liberal struggle (8)
I believe the answer is:
flounder
'struggle' is the definition.
(flounder can mean to struggle)
'patriarch embraces liberal' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'liberal' could be 'l' (abbreviation) and 'l' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'founder' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for flounder that I've seen before include "Thrash about helplessly around the fish" , "Flatfish - behave awkwardly" , "Small flatfish" , "Grope around" , "fumble?" .)