 So I want to talk about what I think is a bombshell article that was recently published in the New York Times This is a piece by Jonathan Martin and it's titled Stop Sanders Democrats agonize over Bernie Sanders momentum now There are two implications embedded in that headline. The first is that there's a group of Democrats who are firmly in the camp of We need to stop Bernie. The second implication is that they're terrified because out of all of the declared candidates He's the front-runner So there's a lot that you can take away from this article just by reading the headline But if you go deeper, it tells me that there is actually a concerted effort To stop Bernie Sanders by members of the Democratic Party Establishment and we're gonna get to some specific paragraphs here that allude to that But first of all when we talk about these stop Sanders Democrats the reasons They claim they're against Bernie Sanders is because they don't necessarily think that he is Best suited to defeat Donald Trump or they're worried that him winning the nomination will catalyze a third-party Challenge by someone like Howard Schultz But for the most part what we need to take away from this is that there are powers within the Democratic Party establishment that are Dedicated to stopping his momentum and they are actively trying to concoct ways that they can undermine him So let's get to some specifics here So Jonathan Martin writes the discussion about mr. Sanders has to date been largely confined to private settings because like establishment Republicans in 2016 Democrats are uneasy about elevating him or alienating his supporters the matter of what to do about Bernie and the larger Imperative of party unity has for example Hovered over a series of previously undisclosed Democratic dinners in New York and Washington Organized by longtime party financer Bernard Schwartz The gatherings have included scores from the moderate or center-left wing of the party including speaker Nancy Pelosi of California Senator Chuck Schumer of New York minority leader former governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia May repeat Buddha judge of South Bend, Indiana Himself a presidential candidate and the president of the Center for American Progress near attendant So let's just stop and try to take in What was just confirmed in this article? there are previously undisclosed Democratic dinners where the subjects what to do about Bernie and Party unity has come up and the individuals who partook in these discussions include Democratic Party leadership Center for American Progress president and neoliberal near attendant and Pete would a judge currently Officially confirmed to be conspiring with leadership to undermine Bernie Sanders. No if you want to be overly Charitable here. You can say well look they're talking about two things They're talking about one what to do about Bernie and two how we can foster party unity So maybe it's the case that they're talking about unifying behind Bernie Sanders because it looks like he's gonna be the But also it could very well be the case that they're talking about how they're going to be able to cultivate party unity after they fuck him over again Now for me, I mean, I'm sorry But I am a lot more cynical about the Democratic Party because the Democratic primary in 2016 was Disgusting it was disgraceful. They overtly rigged it against Bernie Sanders Now I'm not saying that they fixed it that it was impossible for Bernie Sanders to win But what happened was the DNC colluded with Clinton's team to give her an unfair advantage It even screwed over Lawrence the sig Martin O'Malley. So it wasn't just Bernie Sanders So after seeing that they did that after hearing the DNC's lawyers admit that if they truly wanted to it would be legal for them To just unilaterally choose the Democratic nominee in a smoke-filled room I'm going to interpret this in the most cynical way possible because History dictates that that's what we should do So Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Pete Buttigieg, Terry McCullough, near-attendant Are all meeting behind closed doors to discuss the matter of what to do about Bernie Sanders Wow Wow it's Honestly, not surprising But you'd think after 2016 when they were exposed They'd be a little bit less brazen about trying to undermine Bernie Sanders in such a public way Now I know why these dinners were previously undisclosed and to think that Pete Buttigieg Himself who is a presidential candidate who I think would want impartiality. He's meeting with Democratic Party leadership Talking about this as well What's so special about Pete that he gets to be included in these conversations if you're going to genuinely Have a good-faith argument about what we can do to foster party unity. Wouldn't you want to include the other? presidential candidates Bernie Sanders Kamala Harris even Joe Biden people who actually have a real shot at winning But they chose to bring in Pete Buttigieg That tells you a lot about him now another thing that is discussed in this article is Superdelegates so it is possible that since there are so many candidates running that could splinter the vote among the Establishment centrist wing of the party which would give Bernie Sanders a plurality But it very much could be the case that Bernie doesn't get enough votes to secure the nomination in the first round so they talk about this prospect of what would happen in the event a second vote came up and Whether or not they'd rule out Choosing someone other than Bernie and it seems like they don't want to do that because obviously if you just Steal an election away from Bernie publicly in front of everyone you essentially guarantee a Trump victory So it seems like they don't want to do that But let me read to you what they specifically say quote if I had to bet today We'll get to Milwaukee and not have a nominee said Leah Dottree who was neutral in the 2016 Democratic Party primary now. This is someone who is a DNC member The reason she theorized is simple super Tuesday when at least 10 states vote comes just three days after the last of four early States after that nearly 40% of the delegates will have been distributed and she suspects carved up among Democrats so that nobody can Emerge with the majority unlike Republicans who used a winner-take-all primary format Democrats use a proportional system So candidates only need to garner 15% of the votes in a primary or caucus to pick up delegates And even if a candidate fails to capture 15% statewide He or she could still win delegates by meeting that boat threshold in individual congressional districts Should no bargain be struck by the time of the first roll call vote at the 2020 convention in Milwaukee Such as a unity ticket between a pair of the leading delegate winners The nomination battle would move to a second ballot and under the new rules crafted after the 2016 race That is when the party insiders and elected officials known as superdelegates would be able to cast a binding vote The specter of superdelegates deciding the nomination particularly if mr. Sanders is a finalist Is highly unappetizing to party officials if we have a role So be it but i'd much prefer that it be decided in the first round Just from a unity standpoint said senator debbie stable now of michigan So it seems like if they're going to undermine bernie sanders What i get from that is that they're going to try to do it in a covert way Hence why they're doing these Private closed door meetings because again if you truly want to defeat donald trump and i believe that Most democrats do not all of them, but most truly want to defeat trump then you can't just Take this person who has the plurality of pledge delegates and snatch it away from them and give the nomination to someone else They would lose In perhaps a landslide election and guarantee that trump is elected for more years So this would make them incredibly deligitimate, which you'd think that they would already be delegitimized after 2016 But nonetheless if you do it in such a brazen way like they did or like like they could potentially do That could be harmful. So it's clear to me that We need to not necessarily be as Worried about the second round super delegative vote even though it should still be on our minds We need to be more worried about the more covert ways that they're going to try to undermine bernie sanders And now there's literally a group of stop sanders democrats Discussing what to do about bernie Including democratic party leadership beat buddha judge and your attendant And it's disgusting If you genuinely are concerned about the prospect of party unity You've got to stop with stuff like this, but just keep in mind There's a group of democrats Who are trying to actively undermine bernie sanders and that is really disgusting, but is it surprising? Not at all not at all. It's exactly what I expected because this was my initial prediction Seeing how they undermine bernie in 2016. Are they going to do it again? I think so, but they're gonna do it in a different way. They're not going to limit debates, for example They're going to do it in a way that we wouldn't expect because I mean lightning never strikes the same place twice Right. So why would they do it the same way? They're gonna think of new ways to screw over progressive Now what could be Something that happens is bernie sanders just overcomes the rigging because he's so overwhelmingly popular now He has the name recognition. He's the frontrunner So he could trump the field and this may not matter But nonetheless in the future going forward regardless if he wins or not These are the things that democrats have got to stop and it's why we have to change the makeup of the party leadership And the establishment because it's disgusting. They're not about democracy. They're about protecting their own They're about protecting the status quo and it's morally reprehensible