Should I invest when our nation is in a state of economic crisis?

Risk/reward is the operative term. If you are able to research companies and buy their stock at a perceived tremendous value then the potential payoff can be enormous. Companies that are "underperforming" are actually better on paper than what the stock market may currently indicate. It would be prudent to deduce that when the particular stocks have been realized by other investors to be that value, that their prices will rise and so will your investment portfolio value.