Crossword Genius

Both extremes of democracy fine for Americans (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dandy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fine for americans' is the definition.
'dandy' can be an answer for 'fine' (I've seen this before). I am unsure of the 'for americans' bit.

'both extremes of democracy' is the wordplay.
'both' becomes 'dan' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'extremes of' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters at the extremes of the word).
'democracy' with its middle removed is 'dy'.
'dan'+'dy'='DANDY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dandy that I've seen before include "Fashionable fellow" , "comic, 1937-2012" , "Showy dresser" , "Foppish man" , "Man about town" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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