The war for America's independence might have ended with a treaty in Paris in 1783, but the revolution that was launched by the signing of the Declaration of Independence continues to this day. 

When a bunch of rambunctious landowners and colonists decided to throw their British landlords out, it wasn't merely a reaction to poor governmental policy, high taxes or monarchical abuses. Instead, it was a rebellion rooted in the belief that "we the people" are more capable of governing our own lives than any collection of aristocrats, tyrants or bureaucratic bodies ever could. 

Above all else, it was a rebuke of the way the Old World had sought to confine and compel men who would otherwise desire to be free. Even today, that remains a remarkably revolutionary concept. 

To be sure, America has never entirely lived up to the promises made in its founding documents. And even though we most assuredly live in a freer America than the one that existed 250 years ago, the political parties of our era are nonetheless wildly out of touch with the concepts that sparked our nation's independence — their patriotic bluster notwithstanding. 

There is, however, good news about the spirit, values and general rebelliousness that has bettered our society since the late 18th century. For starters, Americans are incessantly pessimistic about the direction of the nation. 

And while, at first, that might seem to indicate just how far adrift our nation has strayed from what it ought to be, it is actually an indication that most of us continue to harbor a quintessentially American dissatisfaction with the status quo — the sort of discontent that has long been necessary for democratic progress. 

Throughout our history, Americans have never seemed to believe we've finally become a "more perfect union." Instead, with every generation, the young restlessly rally to expand our understanding of liberty — marching in the streets, waging war against fascist threats abroad and otherwise rededicating ourselves to expanding the application, definition and conceptualization of human freedom.

In other words, Americans have never been satisfied with their government's use (or abuse) of power — and it's been that dissatisfaction that has driven most of the progress we've made toward a brighter, more prosperous future over the last two-and-a-half centuries. 

That progress has often frustrated great swaths of the political machinery that routinely attempt to govern the rest of us. Partisan opportunists, political powerbrokers and would-be tyrants who seek to reshape society in their own image have repeatedly found themselves at odds with a public that objects to the sort of top-down social restructuring so many political factions aspire to impose on society. 

From the MAGA movement's takeover of the GOP to the socialist insurgency within the Democratic Party, there is no shortage of would-be rulers looking to thrust their preferred partisan policies on a nation that has largely become disillusioned with the electoral options we face at the ballot box.  

Unfortunately, partisan zealots still get elected, and all too often they then consider their electoral success to be a license to run roughshod over political opponents rather than build truly popular democratic support among the public. 

From President Barack Obama threatening to replace Congress with his "pen and phone" to President Donald Trump unleashing a deluge of constitutionally dubious executive orders upon his return to the Oval Office, presidential politics has been especially prone to this view that might makes right in our democratic system. 

And much of the politics that run downstream from the presidency has emulated this abandonment of compromise and consensus in favor of using brief electoral victories to impose partisan preferences on an increasingly nonpartisan public — a trend that is distinctly at odds with the sort of tolerance, classical liberalism and deliberative compromise that is needed to preserve a republic in the long term. 

But such illiberal populism is neither new nor damning for our nation. 

The greatest strength of American-style democracy is that it encourages our experiment in self-governance to continually evolve — not by reinterpreting laws, packing the court or ignoring constitutional norms, but through the democratic pressure of ordinary American citizens who feel discontented with the status quo. 

To be sure, the democratic process isn't a guaranteed bulwark against the sort of tyranny our founders sought to protect us from. After all, many of the worst authoritarians elsewhere in the world were voted into power through similar electoral processes. However, the general restlessness of the American public creates a constantly changing set of political priorities — priorities that keep any one faction from gaining a truly permanent victory at the ballot box.  

In other words, while we might occasionally (or even often) find ourselves plagued by a drought of liberty-minded leaders, America is still, nonetheless, a nation that requires the consent of the governed to operate in any meaningful way. And thanks to the deeply rooted discontent we as Americans always seem to feel toward our government, such consent is rarely an easy thing for the political class to earn, let alone maintain. 

As such, on this 250th anniversary of our nation's founding, let's not merely celebrate the war won by a bunch of colonists who took up arms against one of the Old World's most powerful empires. Nor should we simply applaud the progress we've made in expanding the initial promise of freedom since then. 

Instead, let's celebrate the ongoing revolution for human freedom our nation's founding sparked. More importantly, let's renew our commitment to keeping it alive for generations to come — even if that means locking arms with people who don't always share our view of what a "more perfect union" might look like. 

After all, open disagreement over what that phrase actually means is precisely what this revolution was designed to protect. 

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas and founder of Schaus Creative LLC, an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him on Twitter @schausmichael or on Substack @creativediscourse.