There is no hope left when an outsider hears no criticism from within. I live in Europe and speak nine European languages. I don't get these impressions second hand.
The fiercest critics of France are the French, themselves. The loudest critics of Denmark are the Danes. By the same token, no matter how loud (or accurate) criticism of the USA may get, the moment to worry is when (like the fictional McAvoy points out) a country ceases to realize that they have problems. As long as our loudest, most informed critics are from within, there will be hope for us to improve. When those voices are silenced, THEN worry. When Fox "News" and National Hate Radio tell you that Jesus will watch over our Christian paradise as long as "commies, libbruls and towelheads" are kept at bay by a citizenry armed to the teeth, the time to be frightened is when a majority of the people believes them, and it becomes dangerous to say they are full of shit.
When Germany was divided, the West was consumed with self-doubt. The East spewed out propaganda that it was a wonderful socialist paradise--so great, in fact, that they had to build the famous "death strip" to keep its immensely satisfied citizens inside. It would (and did) shoot them if they tried to cross a western border without a sheaf of government documents permitting it. Their state-run media, mirroring that of its Soviet colonial masters, only told them how fortunate they were to be living on THEIR side of the wall. They even confiscated the newspapers of visitors from the West so that no information not blessed by them got through. Western radio and TV couldn't be prevented, but almost no one there prior to 1989 had any device that could record media broadcasts.
As long as voices from the most enlightened Texas companies all the way up to the White House will raise their voices in horrified protest against what a Taliban-like Texas state legislature imposes on the citizens of Texas, there is hope for Texas. We didn't ask California to secede when Reagan was governor. Until there is no longer any dissent of out Texas, we shouldn't give up on Texas, either.
Indeed--you can't start solving a problem until you realize there is one. As long as we realize there are problems, and are allowed to say so publicly, there is hope we can solve them. The country that crows loudest that it is the greatest is the one deserving of the most skepticism. If it were true, why would it NEED to insist so loudly?
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