After a historic grassroots campaign, Senator Bernie Sanders won over 20 primaries and caucuses and received at least 13 million votes. Despite documented manipulation of the media, and the intentional sabotage of the Sanders campaign by the DNC, all exposed by the WikiLeaks email hack, Bernie still managed to bring an enormous presence to the Democratic Convention. In fact he had over 1800 delegates present.

As I watch coverage of the Convention I can’t help but feel like there are multiple truths being displayed to the American public. Hillary recently secured the nomination, and inside the convention there has been a celebration. On the other hand, a recent Gallup poll shows that right now her ratings have hit an all time low among Americans. The growing belief that Hillary will campaign with Debbie Wasserman Schultz only adds insult to injury.

It would seem Hillary has won the minds of many Democrats, as several prominent party speakers praised her accolades and accomplishments. She has undoubtedly done quite a lot in her time in public office, and I see the allure of supporting such a powerful candidate. However, on the flip side it would appear that Sanders has won the hearts of voters in a much more visceral way. Political insiders view Sanders decisions at the convention to be politically shrewd choices, and many argue that his endorsement has allowed him to insert even more of his policies into the Party’s platform.

For the everyday people who came from far and wide, and for the delegates who chose to leave the convention in an act of protest, these perhaps subtle and calculated moves made by Sanders are being felt as a betrayal. Most major media networks have aligned (oddly enough) with far right conservative outlets like Info Wars and Fox News to portray the Sanders protests as being violent, childish and overall broadly painted with a patronizing brush. The discontent at the DNC is only going to hurt the Democratic Party. Those angry supporters, who feel the voice votes were undemocratic, and that the DNC emails were largely ignored, are willing and ready to leave the party in a mass exodus. The Democratic Party needs to be unified if they expect to win in the general election, and that might require treating Sanders supporters more seriously.

This highly-energized progressive base holds, to a large extent, the voting power of the Democratic Party. Many supporters may have let their rage and frustration get the best of them, but for the most part it would appear that most protests have been non violent and demonstrations have been mostly for shock value. The revolution started by Sanders has taken a life of its own. Some of that autonomy has played out aggressively, but there is also quite a large number of delegates and politically invested individuals that want to keep fighting for progressive values.

What most media refuses to show are some highly articulate and genuinely concerned delegates and protesters. These people aren’t all whiny children, they are true patriots who feel ignored and will be as loud and perhaps abrasive if that is what it takes to see change in what is largely perceived to be a corrupt and overly powerful system of governance. The largest obstacle preventing Clinton from leaving the convention with a strong image of unity is her poor record with young people. Most millennials have lived their entire lives with the constant images of war, threats of terrorism, horrors of mass shootings and vulgar images of police brutality. They read their news on the internet, and the truths that compel them are more closely aligned with more progressive candidates like Sanders because of this.

I hope the Democratic Party figures out how to bring these young people back in, but it going to take more than putting Demi Lovato onto the stage.