Bernie Sanders continues to fight the good fight and no one knows why. Polls and voting and especially delegates have been consistently on Hillary Clinton’s side from the start, and no amount of young people, independent voters, celebrity endorsements, Occupy Wall Street marches or hashtags is likely to change the mathematical certainties of the race at this point. Sanders is under no obligation to pull out of the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, but considering all that he has achieved – changing the national conversation, giving Clinton a worthy opponent, pulling the Democratic Party to the left, raising specific issues close to his heart, getting voters fired up – and with the sand slowly trickling out of the Sanders hourglass you can’t help but wonder, maybe he should start figuring out what his next revolution will be?

Of course Sanders’ continuance in the race puts the Democratic Party elites between a rock and the Republicans. They can’t afford to alienate his loyal support base and so they won’t demand that he give up the race, especially since he is still winning states. But they also can’t afford to be dragged too far left and risk alienating all of the moderate voters that they need to win a general election, and so they don’t want to budge from supporting Clinton, who is more electable in the polls.

There are two possible outcomes from here, and no, Sanders winning enough delegates to overtake Clinton is not one of them. Either he takes this race all the way to the convention and fights it out in July, which will get ugly, OR he uses all of his victories so far, and any future victories, as leverage to gain some control over the general election issues, whilst bowing out and handing the crown to Clinton. He would help to unify the party by supporting Clinton while still influencing the outcome on the issues he’s so passionate about. And by doing this, he will allow the revolutionary ideals that he has cultivated and nurtured to live on well past his candidacy.

Still feeling the Bern and don’t want to cool off yet? Movie for your mood: The Towering Inferno