What bothers me most about the primary wars

[BainsBane]

Is the way in which those unhappy with the choice of nominee have created a narrative that ignores and disrespects the great majority of Democratic voters. Recriminations about how "the party" should have chosen a different candidate willfully ignores the agency of the 16 million citizens who independently made their own choices about whom to support. Treating the primary result as the the outcome of a reified party erases American citizens who made choices with which Sanders supporters disagree. We've seen the election results wielded as a cudgel, with which individual DUers are told that if they don't accept the Bernie contingents interpretation, the party is doomed to perpetual failure, as though elections were determined by compelling a few dozen people on a message board to submit to their views. I have even seen people argue that the millions of votes of the majority (particularly those by African Americans) aren't pertinent because they reflectively voted according to party loyalty.

Think about what that says. Do you truly believe that anyone who disagrees with you is unable to make rational political choices, and that their failure to do as you say means their votes are illegitimate or less valid than your own? What makes you think it acceptable to deny the democratic choices of the most historically marginalized Americans? How can people claim to represent a progressive ideology while erasing the majority of Democratic voters, especially people of color (whom we know voted overwhelmingly for Clinton), from political consideration? Do you truly believe that the only voters who matter are those who shared your own choice in a single presidential party?

And how is it that people demand we understand the reasons for the votes of white Trump supporters while rejecting or ignoring the political choices of the majority of Democrats?

Remember this for the next primaries (and subsequent general elections, for that matter). Advancing your chosen candidate is not accomplished by forcing agreement on a message board or through emails by party officials. It means winning votes--the individual votes of millions of individual Americans whose choices are no less important than your own. Refusing to understand that basic point makes winning unlikely. When those voters whose choices are dismissed come disproportionately from historically marginalized groups, it draws into question claims of progressivism.