I would argue we had a few good years of Reconstruction before President Johnson put an end to it and it took a century for this country to partially rectify this with a few constitutional amendments and Supreme Court decisions(that were cursed by not having time limits) and those changes have been chipped away again so we are close to returning to a pre Civil Rights era federal government similar to Woodrow Wilson except the guys who would be in the KKK are now federal law enforcement in Homeland Security and the Justice Department is trying to equate anti fascism with terrorism. I would agree that democracy requires a constant fight against but my impression is our education system/news media presents government as done deal and “we have democracy and we don’t have to worry about it” and most Americans are too complacent and politically detached - A third of Americans not voting during presidential elections.