[Goose]

I don't think we are as exceptional as we think we are.  Leadership matters, and if you have the federal, regional, and local governments all sending the same message, the people are more likely to follow,

Absolutely true. Another thing the German nation has done well is to keep any disagreements in policy pretty civil, and when a choice is made, everybody (well, almost everybody) is "all in", even the people who disagreed in the first place. In the USA, once sides are chosen, look out. The art of disagreeing constructively no longer exists here.

[Goose]

I don't think we are as exceptional as we think we are.  Leadership matters, and if you have the federal, regional, and local governments all sending the same message, the people are more likely to follow,

Absolutely true. Another thing the German nation has done well is to keep any disagreements in policy pretty civil, and when a choice is made, everybody (well, almost everybody) is "all in", even the people who disagreed in the first place. In the USA, once sides are chosen, look out. The art of disagreeing constructively no longer exists here.