To celebrate Thanksgiving Day in 1985, President Reagan addressed the nation with a message about freedom. “Although, as Americans, we have many things for which to be thankful, none is more important than our liberty. … While entire nations must endure the yoke of tyranny, we are free to speak our minds, to enjoy an unfettered and vigorous press and to make government abide by the limits we deem just.”

Such talk may sound cliched, but it isn’t for anyone who understands what it’s like to live less freely. Perhaps you were disappointed by the outcome of this year’s election; perhaps you even believe that our political system is rotten to its core. But in too many places, violence routinely plagues elections. In many more, elections are never held, violence reigns, people are imprisoned for speaking their minds or for practicing the wrong religion, and ordinary people know well what it’s like to run for their lives. Americans enjoy the right to discuss political matters without fear of violence. They exercise their right to elect their representatives without a second thought.