MADISON, Wis. — For the Fourth of July, I'm packing to visit the blue-green city of Madison, Wisconsin, a hometown shared with playwright Thornton Wilder. The 1938 drama classic "Our Town" was his creation.

The village dance, parade and picnic will lead up to fireworks over Lake Mendota, once home to the Black Hawk tribe. The egg toss will be hotly contested. The antique fire engine, a Roaring '20s gem, will be shined for children's rides.

All this takes place by the school, playground, clover field and tennis courts. A Frank Lloyd Wright masterwork, the Unitarian church, rises right over the hill.

This Midwestern pastorale suggests American democracy remains alive and well in Donald Trump's brutal presidency. Sure looks like it. The corn grows knee-high by the Fourth of July.

But ask flinty farmers about Trump in this land of rich soil. They're hurting from the sudden onslaught of tariffs. Most rural white men voted for Trump in 2016 but don't talk about him much. The less said, the better. They don't read his tweets while plowing on their tractors. They'll judge him on actions.

Hillary Clinton was too "stuck-up" to campaign here as the Democratic nominee, a tragic mistake. The blue city strongholds, Madison and Milwaukee, were at odds with the rest of Wisconsin. If the battleground state is shifting back to blue — and it's too early to tell — that could change Trump's Electoral College equation. Watch Wisconsin like a hawk.

Birthplace of the Progressive Era, Wisconsin is a house divided, like many states in the nation, as we approach its 243rd bittersweet birthday Thursday. We eye the new crop of political talent in the 2020 election, hopeful but wary for the country to be torn apart anew.

July in midsummer often carries dreams on its wings. This one holds our huge contradictions in its grasp.

On one hand, Trump seized the traditional fireworks display on the National Mall and plans to speak by the Lincoln Memorial, with military flourishes like flyovers. The president ordered tanks on the streets — yes, tanks. It will be a partisan VIP thing as he speaks in the sacred place where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Stealing the Independence Day celebration away from the people furthers the cult of personality project that is the Trump presidency.

Small wonder why there's a slew of new books on saving American democracy. Thomas Jefferson and other Declaration of Independence signers would weep and faint at Donald Trump and then demand their gentleman's smelling salts.

"How came we to this cunning rogue?" they may say. "Our revolutionary work in Philadelphia went wrong when a contagion like yellow fever infected the body politic."

In other words, a president's poor character coarsens the country. "Even the English king would be better," they would declare.

On the other hand, the Eagle moon landing will hit its 50th anniversary on July 20. That was a testament to eight years of government building and young President Kennedy's optimistic belief that his 1961 vision could come true. Flying to the moon mustered our better American angels. It's worth reliving those rapt moments of wonder from the summer of 1969.

So I long to step into "Our Town" after witnessing skirmishes, battles and dins inside the Capitol. I'm on the sidelines with a press pass, but it gets to you. A Texas congresswoman, Democrat Veronica Escobar, wept while calling for a moment of silence for the migrant father and daughter who drowned crossing the Rio Grande.

Open party warfare, quiet over the Fourth of July recess, will resume when the Mueller report author, Robert Mueller, testifies before Congress on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Former President Jimmy Carter says the Russian meddling makes Trump "illegitimate."

I just can't wait for the modern guns of Gettysburg.

Then I remembered the truth about "Our Town." The voices in the play spoke of lost hopes and dreams under the surface, sadness, agony and even death. We Americans have a lot to learn about the pursuit of happiness, especially in a summer of strife.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please list the website creators.com.

Photo credit: Free-Photos at Pixabay