I Like Dennis, but he can't win

I hear that line a little too often. It rankles and makes me want to ask people just what do they think they have their vote for? How many of them threw it away on John Kerry because he was touted as the front runner? How many of us were totally embarrassed by his performance at the Democratic convention and moving forward to see just how poorly he responded to each and every attack that came at him? Do you really believe that by voting for who the media tell us is the lead candidate and can get elected that you are using your vote wisely?
I have to say that the way the media create the horse races makes me a bit frustrated. Most of my time is spent reading up on people and thinking about what they have to say. I care little for who thinks Hillary is in front now or that Obama can win now. What I do care about is what each of these front runners is saying about things that concern me and drive me out there to vote.
The unkept and little spoken secret of the media as well is just how much they need certain candidates to win for their own financial reasons. There is no secret that one of the reasons, for example, Valerie Plame got no support in the media when she was first outed as a covert CIA operative was that those who pilloried her were big Republican supporters and supporters of the war. The Washiongton Post, for example, was one of those newspapers that couldn't say enough negative things about her for reasons that were purely political and had nothing to do with the issue of a serious and important law being broken and that no one has yet been held accountable for it.
But I am straying from the original point I am trying to make. We are all voters and our votes must count or there is no democracy here. If we go to the polls and vote with what we believe are our best interests, then we vote for whom we want not for whom we think will win. The point is to vote and to have our say. This is not a lottery and this is not some kind of wishful thinking. These are the facts on the ground of what makes a true democracy.
I wish the press played fair and I wish the people we elected worked for the common good. I wish money and power were not such attractive things for too many of the wrong people. I hope to post soon on my website www.deborahemin.com a good essay on the nature of greed in this country and how it has disrupted the policies we have to live with.
But an equally significant factor is that we are all very bothered by what we see as the culture of corruption in Washington. Dennis has stood up at times when no one else would and we can make as he does jokes about how short he is but sometimes this kind of David and Goliath battle is essential to our well being. That reminds me, I am also working on an essay about that. We can look at King Saul and we can look at David's battle with Goliath. We can use these tropes from the Bible and apply them today in some ways to help us understand what is at stake.
From my perspective, what is at stake right now is the continuance of the life of the planet. I would rather vote for a vegan, peace-loving short man who understands and respects the constitution than whomever it is the media tells me to vote for.