You Democrats had the opportunity to be part of something amazing.

These images are a record of a fraction of the millions of people, huge percentages of them young people who had never participated in politics before, who rallied behind someone with integrity and a principled understanding of the biggest problems affecting all Americans and clear ideas about how to fix them. Here was someone they could be proud of. Someone we could all look up to.

You had the chance to win over an entire generation of Americans this year.

And you blew it.

Had you awarded Bernie the nomination, and given him the full support of the Democratic Party machine, I have no doubt he would have electrified this nation.

There would have been no constant media focus on hacked, poorly secured personal e-mail servers, and “extremely negligent” handling of classified information. (Perhaps some, but likely not much.) There would not have been a scandal in which DNC cronies deliberately disenfranchised millions of their own voters. There would have been no ludicrously obvious conflict of interest wrought by a plague of corporate donor dark money propping up the Democratic candidate to the tune of $3 billion. There would be no discussion of the war-mongering of a candidate for President of the Democratic Party. There would be no question of who your candidate was more concerned with representing — Wallstreet donors, or hard-working middle-class citizens.

Instead of demoralization and the constant publication of poll after poll indicating that your Democratic candidate was considered unfavorable by historic proportions, there would have been enthusiasm — outpourings of expressions of love, admiration, and hope that perhaps finally, things might really change for the better — from an entire generation of Americans who would finally be shown undeniable examples of what civic engagement, political activism, and community involvement can actually accomplish. There would have been credible promises from your Presidential candidate to be the strongest advocate for working citizens and the middle-class that this country has seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. There would have been a surge of young people at the polls in November, and a sweeping come-back for Democrats in the House and the Senate because of the increased voter turnout, echoing Obama’s 2008 victory. There would have been something worth fighting for this 2016 election — a genuine movement for actual political reform and ideas which captured the imagination of millions of your party. There would certainly not have been as many Hillary diehards as there are Bernie-or-Bust voters right now for Mr. Sanders. And there would have been little doubt which person between Sanders and Trump would faithfully execute their duty to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

And perhaps most incredible of all, would have been the astonishment of the political establishment to find that the campaign of an upstart candidate for President of the United States of America with genuineness and undeniable passion for the broad prosperity of this country could be funded almost entirely by small contributions from individual citizens, instead of by enormous donations from the wealthy barons of Wallstreet and the pharmaceutical, fossil fuel, and military industries.

But, no.

You Democrats said “no” to all of that.

I registered for the Democratic Party when I was 20. I’m 38 now.

But you know what? Despite 18 years of sunk costs, I’m done with you people.

You were supposed to have integrity. Republican voters were supposed to be the ones who were forced to put up with this sort of stupidity and compromised ethics, simply in order to find some representation which remotely resembled their better principles.

In one fell swing, you Democrats have rendered millions of your own constituency very nearly politically impotent. We are left with no viable alternative but to take our principles and our movement elsewhere.

In fact, you didn’t just blow your opportunity to be part of something incredible — you deliberately sabotaged it.

I will never vote for a Democrat ever again, let alone a Republican.

Your political parties are nothing.

Your political parties are graveyards for integrity, ethics, and justice.

And you won’t stop until the entire nation is just a tombstone on which is written, “Here lies the hope and optimism for fairness, integrity, and justice in the United States of America.” Or, until you finally meet the end you deserve — to crumble to dust under the weight of the liabilities of your legalized corruption, your two-faced double-speak, your incessant spin, refusal to perceive reality, and your vacuum of ideals.

Until then, rest in peace, America. You could have been part of something amazing.