If American politics is often at its snarliest in the last days before a presidential election, it is at its finest just after.

The conciliatory speeches by John McCain and Barack Obama on election night warmed and reassured millions of attack-weary hearts. When the Obamas called on the Bushes Monday at the White House, it had the look of a family gathering, not a disarmament council as the heated words of past months might suggest.

And on Jan. 20, when Obama is inaugurated, even while the nation is fighting two controversial wars, Americans will showcase a peaceful transfer of power that other nations envy.

No, the political squabbles haven’t ended, but in spite of hostile threats abroad and political torment at home, Americans know their country is secure and their government stable. Generations of patriots have sacrificed to make it so.

On Veterans Day we acknowledge the debt we owe the men and women in uniform who defend American ideals. We don’t honor their commitment by forfeiting our birthright to speak our minds, but by saluting their readiness to protect it.

Like those who love their country enough to fight for it, those who love their country enough to scold its failings are patriots, too.

In the 1960s and ’70s, when a war in Vietnam cleaved the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court – both Earl Warren’s and Warren Burger’s – upheld Americans’ right to protest, to burn flags and draft cards, to retain the rights guaranteed by the very nation they had denounced.

For obvious reasons, the protesters and the military are seen to be in conflict, but in fact they are two parts of one whole. The distinctively American capacity to clash publicly and vigorously over policy without unraveling the national fabric demands that we honor our military not just for battlefield valor but also for protecting vital liberties, including at times even those of their detractors.

When it comes to balancing dissent with respect for our military, we’ve made vast improvements since Vietnam. We’re learning it’s possible to oppose a war and appreciate the warriors at the same time.

The exercise of freedom, after all, is the act that gives purpose to fighting for it. But without the brave people who accept that responsibility, freedom would be fragile indeed.