What about the generation who came of age in the 50s and 60s, and put their lives on the line to try to save America's ideals? That is a "great generation." They owned it and were willing to die right here. The saddest fact of the myth is everyone agrees WW 2 was a race war. It was really clear what that war came to be about and yet, in America, a racial caste system was fully entrenched. It is why in the 50s as well that America had to loosen the system a little. It was straight hypocrisy not to do so. And that is why the Trump voters, when asked when was America great, they say - 1950. That is because Black people had no rights, were non-citizens in their own country but paid taxes. Pay taxes and could not even swim in city pools, enter buildings through the front door. It was madness.