>the american electorate is easy to manipulate
that is a feature of democracy not unique to America
that is a feature of democracy not unique to America
I recall seeing a snippet of the Prime Minister of the UK being asked about a mail box on some particular street corner in London, in an open forum. He knew exactly what was being discussed. Smaller countries have their politicians more tangibly connected to people, as opposed to local representatives being seated thousands of miles away as is the case in the US.
People also forget that the US is set up kind of more like the EU, rather than most other countries. It's a federation of independent states, with deference of law to those states, except for those powers specifically granted to the federal government (at least on paper). This is a yet another abstraction level layered on top of politics that many people in other countries don't conceive.
So propaganda easily overwhelms people's natural gleaning of what's going on.
To quote you: If you are not noticing that, that's probably a bad sign (for what? Can you explain that?)
From cursory observation of various political engagements around the world, it's all very similarly tribalistic - whether it be over the top rhetoric that appeal to emotion - or in some cases violent. Heck look at the rise of the far right support in various EU states. Politics is very often personal, so people will take it personally.
The only real difference is America takes up all the media oxygen given it's position in the world stage.
The fact of the matter is that there are many democracies in the world where the level of discourse is much more advanced. There are many reasons for this, but the primary factor seems to be that the average level of education in those countries tends to be higher.