Andrew Jackson

Dean Barnett is exactly right:

there is no denying Jackson's accomplishments. He is the Godfather of our democracy as surely as Washington is the father of our country.

Many, if not most, of the traits that distinguish American politics from European politics trace back to Jackson. The French can understand Jefferson. The English can see Washington through the prism of Cromwell or Wellington. But Jackson and the culture he embodied remains an enigma to Europe and our own coastal elites.