@revelette1,
It is dismaying. The US was certainly in turmoil during the civil rights/MLK era and during Viet Nam and Watergate (cities under curfew where those out after curfew in black neighborhoods could be shot on sight, National Guard with bayonets, Kent State, nattering nabobs of negativity). And then, we didn't have such ready access to nutty ideas and conspiracy theories floating about in the manner we have now so our perceptions of then and now can be a bit warped.
But the US has never had a period like this one where so many norms of government have been tossed aside.
Or where the leader of the country flagrantly lied with ease every day (often multiple times per day) and where almost every politician of his party refrained from even the mildest criticism of such behavior.
Or where the news media was explicitly described by the leader and most members of his party as a key civic enemy.
Or where the senior policing and intelligence agencies were accused, by the leader and many members of his party as running a covert campaign to bring down that leader.
Or where expertise and knowledge and facts were ignored, denied, and castigated by the leader and many/most of his party.
Or where the man in the WH was using his office to make money for his companies each and every day.
Or where the President of the US was defending a foreign nation - Russia, no less - who had been running an extensive covert disinformation program in America geared to causing internal turmoil AND geared to putting the candidate now defending Russia into the White House.
