"Could have done without the casual bigotry re: the Polish..."

Do you mean "Fanatical Poles"?
Anecdote:
My brother has a Polish friend who visited my home where he spotted a Menorah in my bathroom.
I'm not Jewish at all. I did have Jewish great grandmother, but the Menorah was in fact merely a decorative item I bought at a junk sale.
Apparently though, that was enough for him no longer to be friends with my brother.

When I think of the Poles that I have met throughout my life and I have met many, their political views appear to me collectively to express the idea that Poland should have had a great ( & Catholic) empire but was somehow cheated out of greatness.

I don't know what to make of that other than be distinctly unimpressed. Maybe I have just met all the "wrong" Poles? - who knows eh?