Historians are going to look back at the 2016 Presidential Campaign as a pivotal moment in our history.

I write an article every week trying to explain why Bernie Sanders is the President that many not only want but need. He gave an interview on C-SPAN that echoed all of the sentiments I have expressed. I urge you to watch this interview because it will undoubtedly become a piece of history.

As I follow this election I continually feel myself being pulled back to the famous words of Hunter S. Thompson as he described the social and political revolution that took place in the 1960s. My first article compared McGovern and Bernie. Retrospectively, I see the comparison was both right and wrong. Time marches forward, and the issues of 1972 and 2016 could never be exactly the same.

“You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning… And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . “ — Hunter S. Thompson

This election has documented the pulse of the electorate and highlighted the incomprehensible number of issues we face: our election process of primaries and caucuses is ineffectual and vulnerable to manipulation. Our distribution of wealth is unsavory. Our justice system is broken. Our public education system needs repair. College tuition is putting an entire generation into debt. Our trade agreements have hurt the working class. Political parties have more power than they were ever intended to have. Humanity has impacted the ecological balance of the planet locally and globally. Our police force has become too militarized. Corporations have too much influence over our media and our collective belief systems. We spend far too much money on wars that only inspire and generate more hatred and violence. Immigration needs to be reformed. Wages are too low. Racism remains powerful and grotesquely prevalent. We allow human rights violations to continue domestically and abroad. Many Americans can no longer afford healthcare. Giving veterans the help they need and deserve. Expanding social security and medicare. We have a growing problem with providing affordable housing. Per capita we have more citizens in prison than any industrialized nation, (perhaps the scariest of all) the dramatic increase in mass shootings. And now many of the largest companies (contributing to our GDP) generate more revenue than entire countries while managing to avoid paying taxes which ultimately we pay for (it’s called corporate socialism. If you’re afraid of Bernie being a socialist, stop buying Nike shoes or flying on Boeing planes)… and they are practically monopolized (media/communications, energy, technology/metadata, banking…)

Honestly, I can’t sleep at night trying to comprehend all of this. The fault lines running through our history are a reflection of our short-sightedness, and susceptibility to transient yet powerful emotions like fear, hatred and greed. No single person could ever fix so many problems. That would be overly idealistic. It would take millions of extremely passionate and vocal people to address such a wide scope of issues. Oh wait… that’s exactly what Bernie has done most effectively.

His campaign has sent a shockwave through millions of people, electrifying them into action and opening their eyes to a larger picture (like Plato’s allegorical cave). The suffering of an individual is unique, but the circumstances that create it are shared by the masses. Congregating as a movement, seemingly powerless individuals become part of something far larger than themselves. This is the definition of a wave; individual particles that move of their own accord, but are connected and act together in harmony. The true revolution began with his Democrat insurgency, but continues with his call for the people within his movement to run for public office and to be engaged in national, statewide, and local politics.

A beacon appeared amid all of this darkness and deceit and it is “Berning” brighter with every passing moment; fueled by anguish and channeled into constructive dialogue and political action. A patriotic responsibility and practice that has been remained dormant or been neglected for far too long. Thompson’s words eloquently encapsulate the perennial spirit shared by the McGovern and Sanders Campaigns. These candidates are conduits for an eternal message that speaks to the goodness of the human character, and represent surges in collective ideas and movements that are not forgotten with time.

The cynic in me says they could be covered up like wounds and scars on the body of our nation, painful choices that we are supposed to learn from or look to as a reminder of the power at stake. The optimist in me is excited by the “universal sense that whatever” we are “doing is right”. Like the after image present on the inside of your eyelids after a bright spark of light.

From what I gather the people inspired by Sanders, or have supported him for many years, intend to keep their eyes open and remain conscious of the spark that caught fire and illuminated the cave to show us the Truth: “Our energy” will “simply prevail”.

The first rule they teach you in physics is that energy is conserved, it can not be created or destroyed. Bernie did not create this energy, it was within all of his supporters waiting to be let out.

Call me naive, but I think the “inevitable victory” is imminent. The litany of issues I listed affect people every single day. These folks were just waiting for someone to give them a voice. Now that this potential energy has been unleashed, it can never be destroyed.

Not by any establishment, not by any party, not by time.