As the old saying goes, the dictionary definition of a "populist" is "a politician you don't like". All successful politicians tend to resort to demagoguery. Many of their tools of trade have parallels to the tricks employed by some of the most prolific and murderous demagogues in history: Hitler, Stalin, and their ilk.

Today, we tend to think of Hitler as a lone maniac who somehow hypnotized a nation, but I think that's an oversimplification. In many regards, he was just a conduit for the grievances of a nation that felt wronged by the rest of Europe, humiliated, stripped of "rightful" territory, and economically crushed by retaliatory reparations that had to be paid to the victors. Hitler's personal beliefs had a very profound impact on how the war unfolded, but with or without him, Germans were itching for a rematch of WWI.

So, the basic question that's worth asking here is, does the average person in the US feel deeply wronged by another nation, or by some other, internal foe? I would not think so, although the one thing I know about wars and terror attacks is that the "warning signs" are clear only in retrospect. When Hitler came into power, The New York Times ran an article saying that most commentators don't see him as a genuine warmonger and expect him to tone down his rhetoric now that he has to run a country.