By David Fredrick, Co-founder and Executive Director of Grassroots for Sanders.

As we head into the final stretch of this primary there are so many things that have filled me with sadness, frustration, and anger.

There have also been so many positives. So very many.

From the callers, canvassers, and volunteers to the artists and designers, to the programmers, we have filled with the world with self empowered politics. It is a remarkable energy in American politics that we have not seen in years. A true rise from within that shone through the aggravation of a process designed against the effectiveness of our participation. Through the last year we found that each of us could be a part of the campaign, part of the grassroots effort that every candidate claims to have.

I learned a lot about the world, and myself, over the last two and half years. Not just what social media strategy really mean. Or what “optics,” “hot takes,” and “comms” mean.

I learned that if you give a goddamn about something, you can change the world. Especially if you can find a few million people who share that goal.

That is why this cannot be the end. Bernie was the beginning, and the most public, but not the only part of this movement. Arguably not even the most important. And that is why we cannot stop just because we Bernie supporters have been beaten down this presidential election.

That is not just rhetoric. If we want to see a change in American politics, we must remain active in politics at all levels. Ironically liberals were mocked after Occupy Wall Street for not working to get people elected like the Tea Party did — and now that we have, we are still mocked.

Politics has changed in 2016. The Republican Party has already seen a total revitalization and direction change from the party that less than a year ago was mocked by pundits and too many Americans. Nine months ago the GOP was “on the brink of collapse/implosion/irrelevance.” Instead the opposite is true. Millions of people have shown up to vote for Donald Trump. More people than ever before.

The Democratic party is undergoing something not too dissimilar. The American left has been pushed down in favor of moderate politics that often favor the rich and the powerful. While it is more inclusive than the pre-Trump GOP (excluding muslims and illegal immigrants), it has really assumed what used to be defined as republican mores. That is actually what makes it more difficult. As liberals and leftists we have been stuck in a party that has been correct on some of the important-but-not-earth-shattering policies, but only paid minor lip service to progressive politics. (If you remember 2008 we talked about universal healthcare, in 2012 we talked about income inequality, not all that much has changed and it is all the republican party’s fault ®) That quasi liberalism tricked us and made us complacent.

The fight for the soul of the Democratic Party is happening right now. And if we are to win, we must fight even harder than any liberal in America thought prior to this election. It is a party of identity politics, neoliberal policies, hawkish foreign policies, incrementalism, and it is conservative.

Yes. Conservative.

So conservative that it continues to promote the policies that have ruined our economy, just because the other “team” has worse ideas. Obamacare was watered down, not because of the GOP. But because of conservative democrats. Even then it was supposed to be a starting point for health care reform. Now it is all the Democratic establishment can talk about as a victory, and something under repeated (failed) attacks.

This is a party that is willing to accept a complete lack of progress as a victory. That is willing to throw away massive majorities in congress for little to no gain. Who is willing to completely tank on its own goals as to lose seats in both the senate and the house in 2010, allowing for redistricting that will continue to impact this country until a liberal victory in a census year.

It is a party that is comfortable taking money from predatory payday lenders (whom the Democrats have spoken against), destructive fossil fuel companies (whom the Democrats have spoken against), super PACs (who the Democrats have spoken against), Wall Street (whom the democrats have spoken against), and weapons manufacturers (whom the Democrats have spoken against) in order to support the second least liked or trusted candidate in modern US history. The worst being the RNC nominee this year.

This is a party that has scheduled debates to protect a candidate from challengers, acted to protect only that candidate from attacks or insults, selected chairs that are openly hostile to progressive policies, accused the Bernie Sanders campaign of tacitly approving (unproven) violence, blocking his camp from accessing its own information, and other on-going dirty dealings to protect its own conservative/establishment power base. Even if that means handing more ammunition to the “no low or dirty is too low or dirty” Trump supporters.

We must stop that. We must remind the American people, including ourselves that there is something greater than accepting a party that falsely claims to represent progressive values. That cannibalizes itself to be the lesser of two evils.

We must be the greater of the goods.

That is the true campaign in 2016. That is the Political Revolution Bernie has been speaking about. That is 2016 and beyond.