Keen Umbehr, a trash hauler in rural Kansas, was an "affliction" to the county commissioners in Wabaunsee County. He did what most of us only talk about: He got involved in local politics by attending meetings and writing a weekly newspaper column questioning how taxpayer money was being spent and insisting on accountability from elected officials. Apparently viewing participatory democracy as better in theory than in practice, however, the commissioners demanded that the editor of the local paper censor Umbehr's articles or face withdrawal of all county business. When that failed, they took...