While politics often oscillates between being a source of extreme optimism and being a source of tragic disillusionment, it seems that many people in politics are used to such vicissitudes, and are immune to the emotional effects that accompany them. Indeed, I once thought I was capable of abstracting personal feelings from the polemics of the democratic process. Unfortunately, after attending Congressman John Dingell’s August 7th town hall meeting in Michigan, I was dislodged from my emotional indifference to the natural ebb and flow of politics and thrust into a whirlwind of so-called political passion. As I stared blankly at the unruly crowd, which was screaming at the representative who was given no opportunity to answer questions that were posed by interested voters, I observed what seemed to me as a failure of the democratic process.