>But since the survey question did not define political correctness for respondents, we cannot be sure what, exactly, the 80 percent of Americans who regard it as a problem have in mind.
However, it's also useful to know people's feelings towards a phrase _without_ defining it, to understand what they feel about the term as _they_ interpret it. This gives a sense of the political atmosphere surrounding a term, which can be just as important as what the term actually means.
This isn't how things would work in some "ideal", perfectly rational world; but that's politics for you.