This reads like someone who hates their own country, thinks everything sucks and is hopeless

I don't get that impression. I see someone who doesn't like how their country runs, and understands the way its run is systematically harmful and ineffective. There's a huge difference between politically critiquing a country and being a hateful nihilist!

I’m okay if I still hold a goal of America being better than that.

I think they do too. It just might not be an America as we know it - the problems go far deeper than who is in power. America wasn't good under Obama, they just hid away the horrible parts very well.