“A quarter of a millennium into its experiment in self-governance, the United States finds itself living out twin realities,” the New York Times reports.“The nation’s capital, mired in septic politics, has struggled to pull off a big Fourth of July party. There is algae in the Reflecting Pool, acrimony in the air, and a sense, in some quarters, that America is in deep peril if it cannot persuade the 80s poodle-rocker Bret Michaels to sing for its official 250th birthday celebration. Mr. Michaels and other performers bowed out for fear that President Trump had made the affair overly partisan.”“But beyond Washington, thousands of Fourth of July celebrations will run today on an old, familiar muscle memory, unblemished by scandal, factionalism or questions about the attendance of boldface names.”