It's not necessary for him to define "politics" because the topic under discussion is a political ideology. Yesterday, we were working without a definition of "progressivism" which led to problems so I proposed the one from Wikipedia as the most useful for these purposes. It would be more helpful if you proposed an alternative rather than just criticizing the one accepted on Wikipedia. If anyone thinks we need to define "politics", yours is going to take some work to be useful in this discussion.

I understand his fundamental point to be a search for a way to bridge the divide in American politics. He thinks it is getting facts to the other side, but the other side would say the same thing, that we don't have proper facts. The research says facts are not the issue and won't solve the problem. I don't think there is a way to bridge the divide but I'm willing to consider anything.

I agree that it is a bad definition as most people choose their own measure of progress that agrees with their original thinking.
My own definition of how to define below It is really a series of processes
a) Try your best to define
b) Try out [as many as possible] , possible collection of words that would fit that definition
c) keep improving your definition hopefully it will get you to a workable progressive version
d) keep looking for new definitions and see if they fit yours.
e) keep thinking about the battle between two . One of them has to go .}
Who says?]
f) the one that should win is the one that fits both old an new test cases( collections of words.

If you can get to simplify the above you are a genious. I only think that is how science works.

Will you try a definition of politics that will fit most agnostics? . I asked first. Only joking

What is certain is that before you start to discuss with 'an adversary', if you do not harmonise your definitions then you are wasting 'both your times '

@LovinLarge Maybe it is the sheer acceptance of facts that everyone would agree with { example We are all human) that is the problem .

A good posting. Praising politics in war time is not a good idea because reason goes out the window.

Lets have a new agnostic ideology??? May be not, as there are too many others around.

@Mcfluwster Thank you. And I like all of your ideas, especially your main idea of bridging the divide. And I think you may be onto something in terms of breaking down the big problem into smaller goals like agreeing on definitions, for starters. I like your ambitious attempts to address the political divide when so many of us have thrown up our hands in despair. People like yourself who are willing to try are the ones who are going to get us through this dilemma, short of another civil war or a national divorce.

If we ignore the grandstanders, there are more reasonable Republicans who also want to bridge the divide. I think Trump is the most divisive figure of all, calling for violence over his made up arrest this very day. It would be a lot easier to bridge the divide if he would go ahead and have a fatal heart attack or something similar. I doubt he will ever endorse bridging the divide because he knows we will never sacrifice our democracy for the dictatorship he craves.

I like your ideas because they are hopeful and if we give up hope we are sunk. I have a cousin by marriage who is a stanch Republican and a pretty strict Catholic. We believe in very opposite things. I could not stand him, but when I got to know him better I found that he loves and adores my cousin and worships the ground she walks on, and I like that about him. He has a very demanding job and he has a very strong work ethic, and I like that about him. He is very handy and he helps a lot of people who don't have anyone else to help them, and I like that about him. Turns out I do quite like him even respect him even though I don't agree with his beliefs. So if we can figure out how to apply this situation on a national basis, perhaps there is a way to bridge the divide after all.

We (individuals) always make the decision either to oppose or co-operate and many do not know how to do that.