Bernie Sanders has finally acknowledged the handwriting on the wall. Hearing the fat lady practicing her scales, he’s gathered his troops and delivered his swan song. Sort of.

His post primaries address was a summation of all that has transpired and transformed, and a prescription for where to head next. It was a thank you to his followers and an open challenge for them to now take the lead, to run for office themselves at whatever level they can, to stay in the fight and ensure that next time around the primary process will be more egalitarian and free of top-down corrupt practices. It was a huge no thank you to Debbie Wasserman Schultz and those aligned with a calculatingly undemocratic superdelegate system.

There was no harmony in his song. The disharmony of his views and Hillary’swasn’t small potatoes but major big issue stuff. Too big to be simply swept under the rug. As he has throughout his primary campaign, Sanders made that perfectly clear. His address was a stirring grassroots ballad of passion pitted against a ruthless political machine. There was no feigning of unity or endorsement of his opponent. He promised no Kumbaya moments at the national convention, only a general promise of solidarity in keeping Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.

Most striking was just how truly presidential he looked and sounded delivering his best oration ever. It was at once both realistic and idealistic, and fully invested in continuing the fight by whatever principled means found going forward. The arc of his speech covered everything that remains wrong with America today, a very long list indeed, and urged that solutions will not be found in the status quo, but in a revolution against the established order.

Sadly, Sanders’s populist insurgency has been taught a lesson in consummate gamesmanship, and those that wish to put Hillary into power look as if to succeed. Hillary’s camp effectively embraced a rigged system. Eyeing ultimate victory, that system’s overture to Bernie’s supporters is to climb aboard the oligarchical train for now, and at the first stop after the election they can start dismantling its engine. Some buy into that premise, hoping to fight on from within by holding the establishment’s feet to the fire of internal activism.

Despite what position changes she conveniently chooses to express for the moment, Hillary’s feet are of industrial-grade asbestos. To support her is to support exactly that which Bernie stands in opposition to. No way around that simple reality. She may enlist Liz Warren as her VP but she’s no Liz Warren in the making. She aligns herself with what Obama has spent nearly eight years keeping, just barely, at bay, economically and militarily, from within his own compromise with the oligarchy. Overall, he’s been largely effective in reining in the neocons. I truly shutter to think where we would be today if Hillary had beaten Obama.

As Bernie says, his candidacy is about a movement. Hillary will never be authentically part of that movement.

Clinton has skillfully tacked to the left for the purpose of seducing Bernie’s supporters. She will reposition as soon as the convention is over. Bernie hasn’t run a campaign against an oligarchy of the Right but against those both Blue and Red. Left or Right, someone loyal to Wall St. excess and militarism’s power-brokers is on the wrong side of positive change. If the DNC and Hillary can’t make a convincing show of serious commitment to Bernie’s objectives, beyond lip service, then Sanders’s new and old Democratic adherents might well rethink their party affiliation.

Hillary doesn’t have enough pledged delegates to cinch the nomination outright. She can only win through superdelegates. Her victory rests on establishment favoritism and the power of those of an elite status. The DNC wants a convention of appearances. So much for all those delegates wanting to actually participate, sorry if you thought the process mattered all the way to an actual nomination. Decisions from above have been made, so make nice and act unified and supportive towards what you were passionately against. Defer your passion. Better luck next time.

Hillary’s campaign remains confident that Bernie’s supporters can be “brought around.” Sorry, I’ll take a pass on that. I realize many Democrats find Hillary totally acceptable, or their accepted best shot at defeating Trump, but I’m way too old to embrace the same old same old and its boogeyman tactics, to be asked over and over to roll over and tow the line. Simply or simplistically, I just won’t vote for someone I have no respect for.

If Trump wins due to one less vote cast for Clinton, then I’m the guy to blame. Jill Stein hasn’t a odds-on likelihood of winning, but she may soon count on at least one more vote. There is a life outside of politics, one where we are measured by being principled or unprincipled.

It is the Fourth Estate’s establishment leanings that need feet held to the fire, only then will the real heat be transferred as a wakeup call to Hillary’s corporate backers.

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Gary Anderson lives in Bath.