Of all the weird sideshows in American politics, the one unfolding in a Florida courtroom may be one of the strangest. Largely uncovered by anything resembling the elite political media, a passel of disgruntled Bernie Sanders donors has filed a $300 million class action suit against the Democratic National Committee for $300 million alleging that the DNC defrauded them by rigging the primary process against the Sanders campaign. From Newsweek:

Jared Beck, a Harvard Law graduate and one of the several attorneys who filed the suit against the DNC and its former chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz, wants retribution for donations made by supporters to the Vermont senator's campaign, citing six legal claims of the DNC's deceptive conduct, negligent misrepresentation and fraud. The DNC violated Article 5, Section 4 of its own charter by working with a single campaign to effectively choose who would win the Democratic ballot, the attorneys stated in the suit.

All the usual complaints are rolled into this suit—the leaked-debate-questions gripe, the donor-info insecurity, and the villain of the piece is Debbie Wasserman Schultz. There's a judge's order pending that might let the air out of the whole thing. Of course, everything the DNC does to defend itself in court will be further evidence of the ongoing cabal. Per CDN:

Jared H. Beck, attorney for the plaintiffs, argued, "Freedom of speech and freedom of association are very, very important, but we also have a right not to be defrauded. We also have a right not to be taken advantage of … We have a right not to be deceived. There's no exception to those rights just because the fraudulent speech or fraudulent conduct involved takes place in a political context."

This is, at the very least, an interesting interpretation of how politics work. Maybe it's because I grew up in Massachusetts, but I always thought that getting involved in politics was as purely a caveat emptor proposition as we have in this country. In that context, "We have a right not to be deceived," must have every dead politician back to Pericles chuckling in the Beyond.

While this opens a very intriguing can of worms—could a Trump voter sue over the Medicaid cuts because he had a right not be deceived?—I'm afraid I think this looks more like a high-end nuisance suit. Profit is sweet, Sophocles wrote, even if it comes from deception. And he wrote that a long, long time ago.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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