You are what you vote for.

I am sick and tired of hearing people being called 'so-called Democrats', 'Democrats in name only', 'pseudo Democrats' and other similar epithets given to Bernie Sanders, his supporters and others who have only joined the party recently. There is no such thing as a so-called Democrat. If you vote Democrat, you are a Democrat. If you don't, you aren't.

Somebody who has voted Republican for 56 years and now plans to vote Democrat because of Bernie Sanders is a Democrat. Someone who has never voted in his life and is planning to vote Democrat for the first time because of Bernie Sanders is a Democrat. Someone who switches party at every election and this time plans to vote for a Democrat is a Democrat. Someone who decides to switch from Republican to Democrat while in the voting booth is also a Democrat. You are what you vote for, simple as that. There is no seniority clause when it comes to joining a party. Being in the party since you were 18 does not make you more of a Democrat than Bernie Sanders who joined recently. If you are both in the Democratic Party, you are both equally Democrat.

Loyalty or number of years spent in the party don't come into it. Only issues do. For free college or not. For single payer healthcare or not. For invading Syria or not, for legalising marijuana or not, and so on. There are people in the Democratic Party who are to the centre and people who are more to the left but if they run on the Democrat ticket or vote for a Democrat, then they are both Democrats.

People switch parties because of the issues, because a political party is not a football team which you support no matter what. Many Greens find the Democratic Party's lack of action on the environment distasteful but are happy to become Democrats because of Bernie Sanders, and they will be happy to become Greens again if he loses. Many Republicans are happy to become Democrats for this cycle because they don't like Donald Trump. Those who have been in the party for a short time have an equal right to speak about Democrat issues as much as those who have been in it for years. There are no fake Democrats, only people who are Democrats and people who aren't. So let short-term Democrats have their say as much as the long standing ones because they are just as important, have a vote too and are just as real.