As a Bernie Sanders supporter, one of my greatest frustrations with the people in my camp is the anger they seem to direct at Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party for what they deem to be an “unfair” primary process. I think we can all agree that there are problems with our elections, but in the end it seems to me that concerning many of my fellow Sanders supporters who are new to the process and the Democratic Party, the sense of entitlement they feel wrt taking the nomination is pretty off putting. Personally, I think it's in part a product of the kinds of people Bernie has drawn out of the woodwork, i.e. white independent liberals and working class nonpartisans.
Self entitlement among working class white people in America is a character flaw that gets under my skin. I see it in Millennials (Louis CK seems to think it's a result of Internet culture where free stuff shows up on your phone like magic), I see it in resentful older whites who’ve seen their incomes crumble. There are legitimate reasons for anger, but not for losing perspective wrt how much power whites in America still have.
As Americans I think there's a distinction we need to make between an unreasonable sense of entitlement and a sense of the rights we deserve. I think independents who are relatively new to the Democratic Primary process have the right to play the game as it currently exists, but they aren't entitled to anything more than that. They have the right to stay engaged and to contribute to improving the election process, but they aren't entitled to a quick and sudden change just because they were inspired by a particular candidate.
There’s a certain sense of entitlement being voiced by many Sanders supporters where they seem to believe that even though we've come up short in the primary, that since it was close they are entitled to disrupt the Democratic convention or have a voice in a Clinton administration. I don't see that as reasonable. In my world you win or lose and as long as the rules are the same for everyone, the winner has the right to forge their own direction.
I may support Bernie, but I also greatly respect Hillary Clinton and want her to be able to retain her right to move into the general election with a full head of steam, without unreasonable challenges from Bernie and the rest of us. I think this is doubly important since she's a woman. If I were her or Barack Obama, I would feel relatively sceptical of calls for special consideration given to challenges to her candidacy from independent voters, particularly if these independents are white working class men. This is America after all, and we all know that white working class independents do in fact still feel entitled to an unfair and disproportionate voice in all aspects of our society.
I support Bernie. But I also don't like it when folks crash a party and then demand it keep raging long after the hosts had planned to end it. I invite all independents to join us in the Democratic Party, but I also understand when long term committed Democrats with a capital D place value in membership. It's the same thing I like about unions. You pay in, do your time, and even though you may not like everything about the group, long term membership means something and pays off. Newcomers to the union are welcome, but there's a certain annoying sense of entitlement when people think they can flirt with membership or expect to get special consideration the day they show interest. We all play by the same rules, and part of the rules is this reality that if Super Delegates think being a long term Democrat and winning the majority of delegates is the key to their support rather than corporate polling showing that Bernie stacks up better against Trump, they have the right to that choice. And I don't feel entitled to new ways of running the primary process just because I happen to support Bernie.
If us Bernie supporters want to change the process, we have the right to engage long term and work to change it. But we aren't entitled to it all at once, even though we may be used to it working that way in other parts of our lives as white Americans.