Well, it’s all over but the “anointings”. The GOP has thrown in the towel, and acknowledged Donald Trump as their presumptive candidate. No matter how much they are having to hold their noses, there’s no chance they’ll come up with a Plan B before the convention.

Over on the Democratic side, Clinton has earned enough delegates to clinch their nomination – though Sanders and some of his supporters are vowing to continue the fight all the way to the convention. It’s kind of cute how dedicated they are, but Clinton not only leads in overall delegates, she leads in pledged delegates, states won, and the popular vote. There’s no basis whatsoever for the “Bernie Bros” to challenge her. If the delegate count was much closer, or if the margin in the popular vote was a few thousand instead of a few million, they might have a chance at making the convention interesting for the first time in decades. But now, they are basically having a hissy fit.

One could argue that it’s worth taking the fight to the convention in order to influence the party platform. If they’ve been paying attention, they will know that Clinton has indeed shifted her position more towards what Sanders has been advocating. She even acknowledged him in her speech when she clinched the nomination. There is absolutely no reason at all for Sanders to keep going. As far as the “superdelegates” are concerned, does anyone really think that Sanders can bring all of these key Democrats over to his side when he’s been a long-time independent who is suddenly a “Democrat” only so he can run for president?

As far as his supporters are concerned, well, they need to realize that no matter how much you want to blow up the whole political establishment, that’s not the way things work. You’re not going to have a revolution if you only come out every four years, like some weird cicada. To really make a change in the political arena, you need to start small. Find the already established political party – Democrats, Greens, Libertarians – that best matches your views. Join them. Volunteer for work in local campaigns. Support their candidates in local and state elections. Get the party and your candidates more exposure. Instead of coming out every four years for the presidential election, come out every two years for the elections for the House of Representatives. Attending rallies is nice, but you’ve got to do the legwork, too. And get off your butts and vote in every election in every race.

And for the love of all that’s good, don’t stay home on Election Day. As EEEvil as one may think Clinton is, she’s still the best chance of getting any of Sanders’ proposals enacted. She may be the tool of Wall Street that you fear, but Trump (in addition to being a loose cannon who knows nothing about politics or diplomacy or being presidential and has never held an elected office in his life) IS Wall Street. Just because he’s in real estate and not finance doesn’t matter; he’s still the sort of superrich person who tries to use wealth and fame to influence politics. I’m not going to say that you shouldn’t vote for a third party if you really believe in one; I just want you to think before you vote.

A presidential election is too important for petty, childish behavior.

So is every other election, for that matter.