Our politicians use history to give credence to their decisions, or conversely, to give reasons to not do what _____ did.
Many "regular folks" think history is something of the past, or just something that might have interesting things here and there. I educate almost everyone I talk to about something historical. WWII is my favorite period in history, so I'm always coming up with lesser known factoids to throw out there. I know some just roll their eyes (but not where I'd see it) and some get interested enough to find out more. Any little spark of interest is good.