Sounds like word twisting to me. Liberals have a strategy of twisting the meaning of words barely enough that the idea sounds legit, but only if the new (as in made up) definition of the words are accepted. The meaning of words, if you can imagine... is always different just enough to further a political agenda. I know, shocking...
If their ideas are so good, why do liberals have to change the meaning of words to make the idea sound believable? If the idea is good, it should be able to stand on its own, without help from fluid definitions of words that change their true meaning.
You said a trait is imaginary in the sense of existing "partly" in the mind, right?
Partly? Well, alert the local media, because that definition is made up.
Imaginary:
adjective
- existing only in the imagination: "Joe had imaginary conversations with his Uncle"
Imagine:
verb
- form a mental image or concept of: "imagine a road trip from Scranton to Washington DC"
- believe something unreal or untrue to exist or be so: "I think you're imagining things"
THERE IT IS! "believe something unreal or untrue to exist or be so" And of course in the definition of imaginary, there's one little word that sinks this attempt at redefining words, and that's "only".
My suggestion for liberals would be to use correct meaning of words when describing an idea, then let the idea stand on its merits. Actually, that's good advice for all politicians. They all need to stop lying to us.