During the summer of 2012, I campaigned for Joe Walsh. I manned the phones for him, I went door to door for him, and I attended his events. That October, I witnessed the third debate between Walsh and Tammy Duckworth (who would go on to win the election), which was not so much a debate than it was a large-scale shoutdown by the latter’s supporters. Outside the event, I wasted fifteen minutes trying to get a sentence in against some rambunctious, spittle-drenched animal who mistook his arrant girth for intimidation. I supported Joe Walsh because he had spent the previous two...