I'd like to focus on something other than the Democratic Party's sham primary. The reason is this: though it takes a leader to lead a movement, the movement is--must be--independent of the leader. People projected onto Bernie a genuine hope that he could change the Democratic Party, either by taking it over or at least pulling it further left, and that by so doing America's political landscape itself would be improved. That's misguided, at best, because of the stranglehold the two private corporations known as the "DNC" and the "RNC" have on our government.

Here's a breakdown for you, courtesy of ballotpedia (there are some unaccounted for seats), of the partisan composition of state governments:

Look at the percentages in that table: the real percentage of independent or third party members is less than 0.01%--I've rounded all these numbers. The numbers are both less clear and likely more alarming the more local one goes. Often below the state level offices are legally non-partisan, that is, office holders' political parties aren't recognized. That's an obfuscation of course, since most office holders are partisans.

This duopoly isn't accidental. These private corporations literally control who appears on the ballot and who can be elected. "The people", as it were, have no real choice in the matter, just the fake one presented by those who wield the power.

In some cases the control is direct and transparent. For example, in California the state government officially recognizes just a few political parties--members of any un-official party have relatively onerous qualification requirements.

In other cases the control is indirect, and often structured in such a way that a plausible, reasonable (although insincere) argument can be constructed to justify it. Again, using California as an example: we have a system known as the so-called "jungle primary", in which elections for most offices consist of a "non-partisan" primary in which the top-two vote recipients advance and everyone else is off the ballot. This all but ensures that only members of the strongest officially recognized party, and occasionally members of the second strongest, will ever appear on a ballot.

These things have been part of this nation's fabric for its entire existence, even though several individuals close to the founding sounded alarm bells about party-driven politics. Carefully constructed propaganda over the last few decades in particular has been used to create an entire army of "useful idiots"--the roughly 65% of democratic voters in the recent primaries, for example, and the likes of Kos and most of the people who comment there, shills who infest various reddits about Bernie, etc.

What we have now isn't a democracy, not really. It's not even really a republic, to respond to the pedants who might raise that objection. What we have is, quite literally, an oligarchy, in which political power rests with the de facto leadership (which may, but not necessarily, overlap with the de jure leadership, e.g. board members, "Chairman of the DNC", etc.) in the two major political parties.

Breaking this stranglehold is a task of monumental proportion. It's not going to occur behind the standard bearer of a presidential campaign. The individuals wielding the power will fight tooth and nail to preserve the current system. They'll use any and every technique the can to do so. The vote shaming and "whataboutism" we see every election cycle is a noteworthy example.

One last thing: in many ways the President is a figurehead. The office is a reward for assisting the true power-wielders. Attempting to enact change at that level is a futile endeavor. Instead, change requires a sustained effort to counter the propaganda and a lot of hard work, on the ground, from the local level up, over a period of years (decades). If it's even possible for those techniques to work, that is. We may be rapidly approaching a point where more destabilizing, dangerous, and violent methods will be the only means to change things: that's not to be cheered for or desired, because it will mean so much more suffering and pain for a people already suffering too much.