It’s a tumultuous time in America. Political, cultural and economic divides feel more stark than ever before. Arguments from social media spill over into real-life debates at dinner tables and in workplace break rooms.
Optimism has always been in the American DNA — despite how bad today may be, the American thing is to think tomorrow will be an improvement.
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Is that still true?
VICE News traveled across the country, stopping in Colorado, Ohio and North Carolina to ask as many people as we could one question: Is America getting better?
This segment originally aired Sept. 6, 2019, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.