•January 31, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Politics is played out on the surface of life. It reacts slowly to the tectonic shifts of culture, economics and behavior that roil the vast deep below, sometimes forcing fissures to the surface.

I travel in remarkably wide circles. From “workingmen’s” pubs and diners in my rural area (between the once-booming, metal-bending Quad-Cities and Peoria), to the cloistered settings of the Union League Club of Chicago and manor houses on the glittering North Shore of Lake Michigan above the city.

This past week, for illustration, I dropped in at a diner near my hometown. I couldn’t help but be struck by the couple dozen customers who, rather languidly or so it seemed, downed their gargantuan breakfasts of eggs, cakes, sausages, biscuits and gravy.

All middle age, men and some wives, the customers had a grey cast, overweight, sloppy of dress; they appeared dejected, down on themselves, defeated, in little hurry to move on. It was depressing to be among them. On the North Shore, you see the exact opposite.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.