Yes. Vaguely going backwards, cherrypicking some things, but this country has always been fucked and done evil things that led to overall increased stupidity:

• Fox News and lack of fairness doctrine
• Citizens United
• A fucking Vice President shot a guy (Cheney was part two, actually)
• Reaganism
• Pointless wars for money
• McCarthyism
• The backlash that began after reconstruction era and boiled over during the early 20th century era immigration that saw increased nationalization and christian zealotry specifically leading to Christianity and “patriotism” forced into laws, on money, in schools, amd such. So many “murican” things that some morons think have been a constant since the founding fathers was actually forced by scared white people in power 100 years ago.
• Civil War
• Side note, did you know even Lincoln was a scheming politician? He pulled strings to ensure he’d have enough electoral votes for his re-election, including pushing for a new state he knew would be loyal to him
• All the lead up to the Civil War, which began with our differences and divide right at the founding of the country. We didn’t get along since the beginning.
• Andrew Jackson and the Cherokee
• Everything else we’ve done to Native people
• A fucking Vice President shot a guy in a duel (this was part one)
• Some personal letters of founding fathers like Washington divulge how yhey actually thought about slaves and how they struggled to see them as humans
• The vast majority of people were not free and did not have voting rights when the country was founded, making the declaration and most of the constitution to come later laughable at best in how they worded things. They explicitly cared about white landowning males with money.