I think you might be overlooking the depth of cultural attitudes and the size of cultural differences between populations. From the stuff you're taught in schoo

I think you might be overlooking the depth of cultural attitudes and the size of cultural differences between populations. From the stuff you're taught in school, to what you learn in the family, to common sayings, to the shape of your cities: everything contributes in building a slightly different worldview and different ways of reacting to events and changes. On the other hand, when politicians say "the people want it" it's almost always bs. What they mean is that, in the best case, they have a slight absolute majority- but often only a relative one. But that doesn't really count much- the issues they talk about are already within the frame of what is culturally possible in that country. Trump was elected with less than 50% of the votes, so he doesn't represent "the people"; however, he would have struggled to get 5% in Germany- so in some sense electing Trump does represent "the American people"- about as much as Hillary Clinton does.