I admit to pessimist tendencies. What I really should have said is that nobody is or will be perfect, so we’ll all have to deal with our flaws.

However, yes, the US has always had flaws but things are on a bad trajectory — racism, burgeoning fascism, the incarceration state, fetishization of the military, love of guns and violence, free-market capitalism, lack of concern for the well-being of one’s fellow humans…