I read “Mein Kampf.” Hitler said something in it that really stuck with me. Basically: The people do not want democracy. They don’t feel qualified. If you tell them they need to be the ones to chart the course for the country, they’ll get uncomfortable, because they don’t feel they have a good grasp of the issues and they have enough on their plate with their daily lives.

What they want is for someone to say: I understand the issues, I know exactly what to do, I’m strong enough to keep you safe and solve the problems. Don’t worry about it. I can take care of it if you just put me in charge. I’ll get rid of our anxieties about the world and make things good and everything will be fine. That’s the type of leader and government they gravitate to, not someone who’ll go into all the details or tell them that they get to make the decisions.

I do not agree with his prescription for what makes good government (hopefully goes without saying), but his grasp of how people operate, I think was spot-on.