The Fourth of July is when we celebrate our freedom to pursue our lives and happiness however we choose and to disagree with the ruling authority.

Right?

It  doesn’t seem that way at times, as adherents to various political philosophies battle over whose version of freedom will be imposed on us. And make no mistake, that is exactly what’s been happening, as advocates of these schools of thought grow ever more extreme in their pursuit of the ability to tell us what to do.

But take heart — it’s been far worse than this and we survived. Toward the end of George Washington’s presidency,  for instance, his opposition, the Democratic-Republicans, accused him of “debauching” the country.

His successor, John Adams, followed up by going along with the Federalist congress in 1798, when it eliminated many rights and liberties to protect its “good government” from “treasonous” opponents.

And then there was President Andrew Jackson, the first president to drain the swamp, so to speak, by firing the corrupt appointees of his predecessor, John Quincy Adams, and replacing them with his even more corrupt appointees.

Not counting the Civil War, which obviously is in a category of its own, the 1800s saw some of the worst political outrages in the country’s history. These included, according to Politico, “awlings,” which entailed campaigners stabbing people with awls so they couldn’t vote for the opposition.

Add to that, three presidential assassinations in that period, the arrest and torture of women protesters during the suffrage movement in the early 1900s, the overwhelming violence experienced during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s and the riots and brawls of the Vietnam war protests and suddenly the ugliness of the last few years looks pretty tame.

In fact, on this Fourth of July, we should celebrate having survived all these crises so that we can continue to argue today. We’ve never achieved that more perfect union, but we are free to continue working on it.