They can expound at great length on the Squad's role in influencing the policies of the Democratic Party, for example.

And they can assess the policy proposals of various third-party candidates.

And they can detail the history of the turf battles between the FBI and the CIA or tell you how the FBI under Hoover differed from the FBI under Mueller.

And, if they're really informed, they can even discuss the role of Citibank or Goldman Sachs or BlackRock in picking the Cabinet of this or that administration and identify the various vested interests that are served by placing, say, Tom Vilsack in the role of Secretary of Agriculture.

Likewise, Canadians will be able to opine on the deeper political significance of Pierre Poilievre munching on an apple.

And Japanese will be able to wax eloquent on the LDP's war on the fax machine.

But ask any of these people about the politics of a foreign country and suddenly everyone will begin talking as if factions, intrigues, infighting and other verities of government don't exist in that faraway land. Instead, that foreign country is a political monolith that can be reduced to a single person.

Case in point: ask the average American on the street what they think about Russia's government. "Russian politics? You mean Putin, right?"

Ditto China. "What do I know about the Chinese government? Well, I know that Xi . . ."