Julius Caesar's apologists call him -- still, after 20 centuries -- a "pragmatist". He wasn't. He was an egotist and an exponent of Caesarism ipso facto; and his admirers are people who like "strong leaders" and strongman government, people who are impatient with the "little people" who run republics.
Wm. F. Buckley once wrote that it's easy to embarrass a citizen of the Swiss confederation: Just ask him to name the last five presidents of Switzerland. His point lies at the core of America's continuing struggle with ideological Stalinists and other exponents of rightisms and leftisms run by strongmen and jackboots.
Fighting these guys off, not admiring them, should be our primary preoccupation.
How things have changed.