I would say that among my demographic, the primary attitude toward the United States is doomerism: everything sucks, Trump showed that the country is filled with fascists, our best days are behind us, etc.

I think

1. That’s wrong
2. This is a great country
3. What we have is primarily a problem of leadership; remember how great you felt about the country right after Obama was elected? (e.g.)
4. A lot of small-bore tweaks (like getting rid of the filibuster or eliminating gerrymandering—hard, but not anything about the “soul of the country” or whatever) could have outsize effects
5. Don’t confuse the people with their politicians
6. (Sort of a combination of the preceding two) Don’t confuse the people, in their souls, with the institutions, technologies, etc. that bring us together. Yes, “the Internet is just people,” and so in some sense the things you dislike about the Internet are just the things you dislike about people. But the way the Internet is packaged up and served to us today isn’t a necessary fact. We could change it, and doing so would probably change the way we behave toward one another. All of which is to say that we might be confusing American disunity with social-media-driven hateslop. (This is far from a novel observation, of course.) A friend reminds me that it’s similar to cars: they make people into assholes, in a way that we aren’t when we’re pedestrians. Don’t confuse the technology with the people using it.
7. The assholes don’t get to own patriotism or the flag
8. If you’re looking for a concise way of expressing the variety of American patriotism worth having, Ani DiFranco probably has you covered.