Yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton officially released the delegates she earned in this year’s primaries to presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Granted, it was a staged act in the scripted Democratic National Convention, but it’s the thought that counts. The formal gesture may serve a dual role – both to reinforce her support for Obama among claims she may not be as sincere as she seems and also to reassure her followers she’ll be back in four years.

These gestures are more of what we need to see in the remaining few months of this historic election. Sure, Clinton has every right to feel snubbed, but if Michelle Obama had been speaking to a delegation assembled to nominate the former First Lady as this year’s candidate, she still would’ve praised “those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling,” even if her husband hadn’t of won the race.

The candidates and their teams realize that no party will succeed as long as their supporters keep harping a lost cause instead of campaigning for their party’s win. The winning team that finds itself in the White House this January will celebrate victory on a unified front.

Historic or whatever it is, this election comes at a time when Americans stand with more to lose on the social, economical and political scene across the world than we have in a long time. So wear your Clinton sweatshirt. Flash an Obama button. Share one of McCain’s political ads with your friend while you decide whether that Huckabee bumper sticker is really necessary.

Admittedly, we’re not all donkeys or elephants, but the American thing to do – and if that’s too cliché for you, consider it the thing we must do – is make the most of the next 62 days. If you were a mad Clinton supporter who just can’t let go of your “Hillary for America” yard sign, volunteer at the local Democratic party office as simply a Democrat. If McCain doesn’t totally throw you over the top, consider the other things he believes in for a moment and spend some time sharing the issues with others.

Martin Luther King Jr. once told us “nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity,” and at the rate some of the inter-party separatist movements are going, we’re set to be royally screwed. Dissent and division for the sake of both is a good idea in the moment but not in retrospect with your opponent in office until 2012.

We’re not saying sing “Kum Ba Yah” with your political foes. Simply come together with your fellow party members who may not see eye-to-eye with you on everything, but with whom you will rejoice a victory or mourn a defeat this November. Surviving unified, after all, is what’s kept this fragile nation together for so many years, and we wouldn’t want to trust its security and future to just anyone.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.