If you can’t see that our nation is in moral decline, what are you fighting to defend, our right to listen to thrash?
You are picking and choosing quite a strange array of time periods to point to, but the label you chose for each time period don’t point to a moral base. The closest you came was “Puritan,” and the fact that you chose that label indicates that you really don’t know much about the Puritans other than what your teachers have programmed you to think. The Puritans were actually a pretty fun bunch who didn’t mind drinking, lewdness, and having a wild time. They were “pure” in their interpretation of Biblical teaching.
It sounds like you believe the lie that Revisionist Historians have been preaching that American tradition is evil. I’d suggest “Patriot’s History of the US” and “the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History” if you’d like to read some history books that actually paint us as having a pretty good track record.
By the way, I’d go for the gold-rush era of capitalism in a heartbeat. Economically, we were far better-off under “Laisse Faire” (though there was not much that was actually hands-off about it) economics, and it was a far better banking system.
But I’d also go back to a time period to when pop culture was not so blatantly decadent. I know the Great Generation was not perfect, but I’d much rather go to a Glenn Miller concert than a Pearl Jam concert. Yes, the people had their faults and weaknesses, but we made a joint effort to shame wrongful behavior and praise virtuous behavior. When we allowed the Leftists to destroy the concept of right and wrong and of shame and praise, we allowed them to dictate the new right and wrong.