The Lever

When we fight?

When we fight?

When we fight?

This was August 24.

American politics was on fire.

Donald Trump had survived an assassination attempt.

Joe Biden had dropped out of the presidential race,

and Kamala Harris had been installed at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Amid all this chaos, I decided to take a trip to see the insane circus firsthand.

I am in the hall of the Democratic National Convention.

I just saw Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker, walk by.

Though this was a last-minute trip and I hadn't done any planning,

I managed to get into a few of the places you don't see on TV, the private parties. So I'm here at the salt shed in Chicago, which is a concert venue.

And they're going to have a Wycliffe concert.

And it's a climate event, clean power happy hour.. So a bunch of climate groups. The Democrats'

gathering was in Chicago, a place I know pretty well. I went to college right outside of Chicago.

I worked my first newspaper job in Chicago. I went to my first Democratic convention in Chicago in

1996. I worked on my first political campaign against a billionaire in Chicago.

And through that, I got a taste of Chicago's notorious political culture.

Chicago is the most corrupt city in the United States based on data from the Justice Department.

Now, when you hear the term Chicago-style corruption, you might imagine smoke-filled back rooms

...