This is not an obituary of a late president, nor of departing Obama, but of a presidency we could have had. No, not of America’s first female president, either — a crooked election rigger, Wall Street shill, and arms dealer, whom we can be glad we were spared (though Trump with his cabinet composed of plutocratic oligarchs may not be much better).

No, it’s an obituary of the best presidency of our lifetime which the DNC denied us: Bernie Sanders who introduced millions upon millions of awakened and responsible Americans to each other, Americans who have had enough of a rigged economy and rigged political system. Let us hope we learn how to fight the systemic corruption which has stolen so much of our country from us and seeks to steal it all while ravaging the rest of the world as well.

Had we all swerved, as one, to Jill Stein, we might yet have gotten a much more valid president than we got (and the first female one!); but we are still learning how to grasp the full reality of our system and organize ourselves. We also need to get better at recruiting others who deem themselves on opposing sides even though almost all Americans agree on the most urgent existential issues, being divided through manipulation from the nefarious top of our pyramid scheme society.

Let us hope that ever more Americans will learn to put aside our hyped up minor differences and unite to solve our greatest problems, thereby not only restoring our country to the better state of affairs some among us grew up in, but making an altogether better country than it ever was: a country of true liberty and justice for all, capable not only of minimizing human deprivation, but also of overcoming the many tragic challenges the universe poses for us and all fellow humans on Earth.