My favorite American social critic/Philosopher, Eric Hoffer, would say that history is played above the heads of the masses by the best and worst of society. One thing I would take from that is that the average American has no idea of what is the essence of democracy.

Hell, maybe folks in general can only understand such a thing when, like Germany, as a people you have gone through the process of having lost it for a disastrous period.

All I know is that if every American had read a few competent biographies of Hitler and Tromp, the entire country would shaking in its boots.