Excellent perspective. I can only think of maybe a brief time in the Greatest Generation, but one has to mention that a great number of citizens were shrouded in white robes or joining the American Nazi Party... "The branch was known as the Friends of New Germany in the U.S. The Nazi Party referred to it as the National Socialist German Workers' Party of the U.S.A." and "Nazism in the Americas has existed since the 1930s and continues to exist today." - Wikepedia.com. Any time of note which could be considered "Great," as you pointed out, had many scars and blemishes. I agree with your list of the rotting sores in American History.