Arguing about politics is a core attribute of our nation

I often write about how we shouldn't spend so much of our free time arguing with strangers on the internet. Turns out I was wrong.

#ScaiPod (also available on Spotify!) has spent some time at the George W. Bush Library leading up to America's 250th. We might seem like we're barreling towards this birthday an angry nation, a nation where we've eschewed the unity we felt after September 11, 2001 and just focus on what divides us.

Ken Burns dropped by to talk about his documentary about the American Revolution with Author Rick Atikinson. Atkinson reports, at this time of division, we might be reassured to learn we never, technically, got along with each other.

"We can look back and see we've been through worse existential crises in our history than anything we're going through now," he said, singling out the Civil War, the Depression and two world wars along with the American Revolution itself.

The colonists didn't all agree we should revolt. About 20% were still dedicated to the British crown, others may not have actively supported England but weren't supportive of the cause of the Revolution, either.

"Why did you have waste that perfectly good tea?!" they might have exclaimed.

Less than half of the colonists would be considered "patriots."

Author Walter Isaacson says the colonies couldn't agree on what to do next. Georgia would have had much different priorities than Massachusetts, for example, so not every colony agreed we should declare independence.

He says that started to change with Thomas Payne's Common Sense, which suggested "an island cannot rule a continent." Isaacson said increasing taxes on the colonists and limiting trade with other European countries helped Common Sense become one of the earliest items in the colonies to go viral (after smallpox, of course).

The Continental Congress put together a committee to write out why the colonies should consider independence. That committee included John Adams, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

"That may have been the last time Congress created a really great committee," Isaacson suggests.

He said the line from the Declaration of Independence in this picture is the greatest sentence ever written. That sentence is the result of compromise.

"It's not something where you say, okay, 'Is everybody tall or short or more free?' But it's self-evident since we all came together in this social contract, it's self-evident we're all equal. Everybody's entitled to certain things: defense, police, maybe good schools. It does not mean everybody will have the same amount. It just means the rights under the rule of law, nobody's favored."

In Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia," he writes, "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

During this same series at the Bush Center, New York Times Columnist David French cited a poll showing 82% of Republicans either strongly or somewhat disliked the Democratic party; 79% of Democrats felt the same about Republicans.

"You have very little interest in defending the rights of people you hate. When you encounter someone you hate saying something you don't like, the first thing you're going to think is, 'How can I find a way to shut them up while I still get to speak?' We go into this 'free speech for me and not for thee' routine," he says.

So Ken Burns says we might be feeling a type of existential crisis coming up on America's 250th. Our forefathers weren't perfect, either. They were slave owners, envisioned the creation of another empire and the colonies were already split on a lot of major issues.

But Burns hopes reminding us we made it through the Revolution, Civil War, world wars and domestic issues like the civil rights movement shows us we still come together and can still celebrate.

"We're obligated to take that and hand it off in shape for our posterity and to celebrate hard and joyously," he said.

Burns cites a letter from John Adams to his wife written July 3, 1776. This noble statesman had some inspiring and heartwarming thoughts about Independence Day.

"It ought to be solemized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore."