I'm from Australia, not some poncy nordic utopia. I wouldn't describe the US as a shithole country per se, but I sure as shit wouldn't want to move there.
The whole republican thing does make me apoplectic, and admittedly that's pretty much all we see from this far away, but I acknowledge that its probably not a big part of daily life. For example, there's some 4x4 youtube channels I watch and the people just seem like cool normal people who I'd probably like to know in real life, but I'd bet they vote republican anyway.