The truth of the matter is that it is a very broad term. It’s something that’s always been apart of the framework of this country yet Repubs like to pretend it is the antithesis of the Founding Father’s philosophy. Republicans have a hard time even defining the term in their OWN WORDS. That alone tells you they lack a basic understanding of the word.
It is one of the buzz words con media uses as a substitute for 'evil monster'. The same as gay, woman, libruls, feminists, college professors...
The whole intent is to reduce any people or groups that oppose the radical right wing agenda as evil and 'other'. For the uneducated they reduce all of human discussion and conflict to us vs them. All of it. They didn't use to do this, up until about 20 years ago Republicans were normal Americans who had no trouble compromising with Democrats. But with the advent of conservative talk-radio and Fake Fox News they paint 'the other' as evil 24/7 until their audience actually believes there are no valid viewpoints other than the party line.
Democracy is built on compromise, without it democracy soon grows week and dies. The US democracy was intentionally created by the founders as a government of forced compromise because they knew after seeing centuries of history in Europe that some groups in all populations are militant and will easily resort to weapons to force their will on others.
When you hear cries of 'both sides do it' it is a false equivalency. Democrats have been forced to meet force with force as conservatives have gotten more and more unyielding and really want to encode all of their biases into law. They want zero compromise.
I think it time to split the country up and let the cons go have the south and build a wall around it so high no one ever needs to see or hear from them again. They'll be the American version of North Korea.