There was an immigrant friend of the family who during the Bush era (this was during what I would call the 'height' of the Muslim panic), who basically made the argument to me that even with all the hate, all the war-mongering, all the bullshit, that the US was the best country in the world. When we pressed him for why, his argument was basically, "The McDonald's Dollar menu".

This is decades ago, but his argument was that in-spite of everything else, he knew that in Amercica, at least his children would not starve, because they would always be able to afford 'something', however unhealthy, from the dollar menu.

I don't think that America exists any more.