Regardless of whether Bernie Sanders wins or not, there’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s only so much Bernie – or any president – can do, as he keeps reminding us. Not only do we need a Congress that will fight for us, we need all levels of government – state, county, city – to represent we the people.

So, yes, we should keep supporting Bernie. But we need to do more and that starts at the grassroots. We need to recruit real progressives to run for elected office at the local level. Actually, it needs to start even before that! Community and school boards are the real entryway to a life of public service. And I’m talking regular people who never would have thought of becoming a “politician” with all the negative baggage that word comes with. It will only change if good people with honorable intentions stop avoiding politics because of its toxicity and start joining in to change it. That means you and me.

Even if we don’t actually run for office, we can encourage our friends and family to get more involved. If everyone in the country, and the world, was more engaged with the system we have in place for organizing and running our communities (“politics”) we could actually make it work like it’s supposed to!