Interesting. So, then, I take it you were born in the 1930s at the latest, yes? After all, in order to have something to compare the 50s to, you'd need to have a clear memory of the 40s, and that would make you at least 70.
Being at least 70, your memory must be getting a little fuzzy. You must be forgetting about the blind eye we turned to the plight of the European Jew, then the internment camps after we finally bothered to get involved, the red scares that came after the war, the hanging of uppity niggers all throughout, the fact that it took the National Guard to begin the end of institutional racism, the way our involvement in Korea and Vietnam tore the country to pieces, the petroleum shortages, the market plunge in the 80s and the resulting economic hardship, and so on.
America has a history of one turmoil after another. It was born in turmoil, and some of our highest laws were penned as the result of further turmoil. Each time we came out the other side either stronger than we were, or merely different from before, or some of each.
Of course, if you're any younger than 70, shut the **** up and stop talking about how great the America you never saw supposedly was.