The Super Tuesday election results effectively narrowed the Democratic primary race to Joe Biden versus Bernie Sanders. While Elizabeth Warren has not withdrawn from the race at this point, she does not appear to have any realistic path to the nomination.

The Democratic Party is deeply divided between its moderate insider, establishment wing and its progressive outsider, anti-establishment wing. If the Party cannot figure out how to bring these two factions together, it may very well be headed for a train wreck at its July convention. Such an outcome would be a disaster for the Democrats, and, most likely, hand Donald Trump the keys to the White House for a second term. That, in turn, would leave our American democracy in shambles. So, how can the two factions unite and avert a train wreck?

A major step toward unity would be for Tom Perez, the chairman of the DNC, to call a summit meeting in the next month. The sooner the better. Perez should invite the campaign chairs of the remaining viable candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, assuming she was still in the race at the time of the meeting. President Obama, Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi should also be strongly encouraged to attend.

The purpose of the meeting would be to develop an agreed upon strategy for uniting the Party regardless of who wins the nomination. While this may not be easy to achieve, having an agreement in advance of the convention before tempers flare and a blowup occurs would be in everyone’s best interests.

Here are some suggestions for an agreement signed by all the candidates that, I believe, would greatly assist in uniting the Party:

1. The candidates and their campaigns promise to work to unite the Party in coordination with the other wing.
2. The candidates and their campaigns promise to run positive campaigns that focus on their own achievements, attributes and ability to defeat Trump. They promise not to run negative ads against their primary opponents that could raise fears or doubts about those candidates which could be used by the Trump campaign in the general election.
3. The candidates and their campaigns promise not to say or imply that any other candidate cannot beat Donald Trump in the general election.
4. The candidates and their campaigns promise to make uniting the Party a major piece of each of their campaigns for the remainder of the race.
5. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the candidates promise that whoever wins the nomination will nominate for vice president a person from the other branch of the Party. By effectively creating a coalition ticket, this will go a long way toward unifying the Party. It will also demonstrate a sincere desire to work together to find common ground between the two wings. A major failure of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy was her nominating Sen. Tim Kaine for vice president, another moderate. By doing so, she lost some energy and commitment from the progressive wing of the Party, which could have helped her win the election.

Other pieces could be added to such an agreement. But some compact along these lines needs to be made very soon. For the Democrats to be in the strongest position to win the election, they have to come together and produce a huge voter turnout. If the Party does not find a way to truly unite, it will be seriously weakened come November.

Write, call or email DNC Chair Tom Perez  (202) 863-8000/ https://democrats.org/contact-us/; Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer,(https://www.schumer.senate.gov/contact/email-chuck, US Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121); and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (https://www.speaker.gov/contact, House of Representatives switchboard 202-225-3121) and urge them to convene a summit to develop a unity strategy. For the good of the country and the planet.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

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