Scrappy Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich was not allowed to participate in last night’s Democratic debate on MSNBC. Two days after inviting Kucinich to the Las Vegas event, the network changed the criteria they were using to select participants, and Kucinich’s invitation was revoked.

Following a court battle over the constitutionality of the network excluding a willing candidate from the debate, it was determined that FCC regulations do not apply to cable networks. NBC will face no repercussions as a result of excluding Kucinich from the debate.

Why does it matter? It’s pretty obvious that Kucinich simply does not have the support and the money required to succeed in the primaries and win the Democratic spot on the general election ballot. Is it a waste of time to support a candidate who has basically no chance of going all the way?

Kucinich may not be a big name like Clinton, Edwards, and Obama, but he is the only Democrat consistently holding true to Democratic ideals. He is against the Patriot Act, for gay marriage, against continued funding of the Iraq war.

Perhaps most importantly, Kucinich is the only Democrat to campaign without the assistance of corporate lobbyist funds.

In the eyes of Democrats, Independents, and undeclareds around the country, Kucinich should seem like the harbinger of a new era. Instead, many are looking to him as the next Nader: a good candidate, perhaps, in a perfect world where every vote was counted - but a dangerous liability in the real world, where the last election was lost for the Dems by virtue of the Independent candidate’s small percentage of votes.

But let’s face it: even Kucinich knows that he won’t be seeing a spot on the ballot in November. He is running as an example to the other candidates of what one can accomplish while still retaining their ideals. He is patently un-electable, but he brings to the primaries an element of accountability.

All we can hope is that the mainstream candidates take note of his positions and realize that he got this far without veering to the right simply to increase his electability. If Kucinich is able to lead by example and steer Democrats back toward Democratic ideals, the time and effort he has put into his campaign will be well worth it.