The 2016 election cycle is coming to an end. Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and Hillary Clinton recently announced she has enough delegates to be nominated for the Democratic Party. Both parties are deeply divided on these results. Many Republicans still vow to never support Trump, even hoping for a third-party candidate. Hillary Clinton being nominated has stirred up a lot of controversy among Democrats. She is looked at as an establishment candidate, which makes it impossible for her to be able to take on the elite like she says she will. Bernie Sanders voters are outraged, even alleging that the election process was “rigged” in favor of Hillary Clinton. They are greatly misguided.

There are a few reasons why Bernie Sanders supporters feel that the election process was rigged in favor of Hillary. The first is the use of superdelegates. Superdelegates are unelected delegates who are free to support any candidate for the presidential nomination at the party’s convention. They are able to vote for whom they individually want to be president, not what the electorate wants.

Many superdelegates have pledged support for Hillary Clinton, even though the people in those states wanted Bernie. Another reason people “feelin’ the Bern” think that the election process was rigged is because of closed primaries. Closed primaries are elections in which only voters registered with the party holding the election may vote. For example, New York had a closed primary so only registered Republicans could vote for Donald Trump.

Now, this puts Bernie Sanders at a disadvantage because up until this election he was an independent. Within the past decade, the Democratic Party has had a massive shift to the left (it was Bill Clinton who enacted welfare reform, how many Democrats would agree with that now?). Therefore, many people who support Bernie Sanders are registered as independents because only in recent years has the Democratic Party supported their ideals (i.e., socialized medicine), but would otherwise have considered themselves socialists, progressives, etc. This has left many people unable to vote for Bernie, putting him at a disadvantage.

Bernie supporters do have a reason to be upset. However, calling the election cycle “rigged” is inaccurate. Contrary to popular belief, political parties are not part of the government. Political parties, such as the Democrats and Republicans, are independent organizations which have certain rules to choose who will represent their party in an election for the United States of America.

If you are a member of one of these parties (or any party, the Democrat and Republican parties just happen to be the largest) you have the power to actively work to change these rules. Bernie Sanders did not lose because the election was “rigged” against him. He lost because the Democratic Party has been following the rules which have been put in place decades ago.

If you have a problem with these rules, work to change them. Nobody was complaining about closed primaries or superdelegates last election cycle, it wasn’t until your guy lost. Flailing your arms in the air and whining that the United States is undemocratic because of Bernie losing is immature. Quite frankly, it shows just how much Bernie supporters are disconnected from reality.

Now that I have outlined the reasons why Bernie didn’t lose, I’ll explain the reasons Bernie did lose. Bernie lost because he doesn’t represent the ideals and values that this nation was born on. The United States of America was created through capitalism. It is capitalism that has allowed the United States of America to become the most powerful nation this world has ever seen. It has allowed the United States of America to create more wealth for its citizens than any other nation.

Here in the U.S., we put great value and emphasis on individual rights and freedom. That is the underlying philosophy of capitalism, that the economy works better when individuals have the power to make decisions for themselves. Our Founding Fathers fought for a centralized government and our country still fights today to liberate people from the power of big government all around the world. Bernie’s philosophy goes directly against what this country was founded on.

The underlying theory of socialism is that individuals are unable to make decisions for themselves and that the government has to make these decisions for them. Bernie wants to put more power in the hands of the government and believes you are unable to make decisions for yourself. You are unable to negotiate a wage, unable to make decisions for your child’s primary education, and unable to listen to the political opinions of corporations and the wealthy. Bernie, you lost because we, the people, know our potential as individuals, not because of a rigged election process.