I talked about race and racial justice, because I believe that out of narrative comes policy. The establishment has failed so many decent, hard-working people — if we don’t call it out, aggressively and repeatedly, nothing will change.

Nowhere is that more evident than on the issue of climate justice. The Trump administration and the Republican Party support fossil fuel interests because doing so dovetails neatly with their political needs. As the founder of the Need to Impeach movement, I assure you I find this behavior — which endangers every American — beneath the contempt of any true patriot.

But during the campaign, I also participated in multiple media-sponsored debates where few questions were asked about climate change, where foreign policy discussions raged without any mention of climate change, and where the prevailing atmosphere diminished the importance of our climate crisis, when not ignoring it altogether.

The awareness that this is a human crisis with substantial racial subtext — America disproportionately poisons its black and brown citizens — seems not to have penetrated the elite enclaves in New York or Washington. That has to change.

The campaign reinforced my deep misgivings about how the elite media, political insiders and big corporations have an impact on our democracy. I watched as the Democratic National Committee ignored public appeals from me and others to change the debate process to ensure a more diverse group of candidates made the stage, only to change the rules a few weeks later to allow Mike Bloomberg to participate in the debates.

I was also dismayed at the relentless focus in the media on money, polls and the horse race — and was heartened that the vast majority of questions I got from people on the campaign trail focused on the issues relevant to their lives.

My ultimate takeaway from this campaign was how much I learned from and loved the people I met. I never thought it was “grueling” or a “marathon.” I thought that it was a joy, that it taught me invaluable lessons and made me a better person. I’ve traveled the United States full time for over seven years now, and my heart and soul are with the people I’ve met on the trail. I look to them for wisdom, strength and compassion.