In 2008, I was an extremely dedicated Hillary supporter. I didn't give her money, because I wanted to save my donations for the General Election, but I called for her for in every primary I could. I always said who I was calling on behalf of, but the focus of the calls was that their primary was coming up, and I really hoped that they planned to come out and let their voices be heard.
There were upsides, and downsides, to such a long primary. Supporters of both candidates were passionate, and when Obama won the nomination, some people decided to abandon the Democratic Party. They sucked, but they were few in number compared to both the number of people supporting either candidate who made similar threats during the primaries, and the number of Hillary supporters, like me, who were rational and knew our real enemy was the GOP. In fact, most of the “Party Unity My Ass" movement seemed to be GOPers in disguise.
It also created enormous Democratic interest in the election, all the way through to the convention and after, because the primary season can feel like forever and many do lose interest between the primaries and the General, or only care after the Conventions.
So, even though after careful thought this year I decided to support Hillary again, I'm prepared to, again, donate, volunteer for, support, and advocate for Nominee and eventually President Sanders, if he does win the primary. I also very much liked Hillary's metaphor of the primaries being more of a “job interview” than a horse race or a competition.
Obama supporters from 2008, and the many young people who were only 10 back when the 2008 primaries happened, don't remember the feeling of both failure and pride that our candidate, even after fighting perhaps in some people's minds too long, threw her vast support, connections, and the charisma of her husband to Obama when the job interview was over and she lost.
Please, advocate fiercely for the issues you support! That's how we build our platform. Also, please, advocate fiercely for the candidate you support! There's no way to know at this moment who will eventually win, though, so try to remember that and not damage our nominee, whoever he or she might be.
But please, don't say you're going to sit at home and sulk during the General Election if your pony doesn't come in first in the “horse race" metaphor for the primary.
Let's all remember who the real enemy is. They're on the General Election ballot, not the Democratic primary ballot.
May the best Democrat win! :)