The best way to stop Donald Trump is to hit him and hit him and hit him to the point that it seems like cruel overkill, and then hit him some more, and then, when he starts crying, to begin really hitting him. Every Democrat is going to want to participate in this, despite what misgivings some may have about the milquetoast neoliberal.

Sanders is obviously going through some stuff right now. He knows it’s over. His Thursday rally speech went nowhere near attacking Clinton, as these sorts of events did when he still felt it was a competition. Even the most hardened Clinton loyalist would’ve felt compelled to empathize in the setting. There he was before what may have been his last rally, rattling through the planks of his policy agenda and feeding off the energy of his crowd. This has been his daily life for the past year. How is any human being able to withdraw from this without feeling extraordinary pain?

Maybe he doesn’t have to. He can still speak at rallies and still talk about the issues of importance to him, just not on behalf of his own candidacy. And he can still go after Donald Trump, too, something even a serious-minded revolutionary can’t resist.