Senator Bernie Sanders can defeat US President Donald Trump in 2020 but the Democratic Party elite is actively engaged in stopping him from winning the nomination, an American writer and political analyst says.

Daniel Patrick Welch, a political commentator and thinker in Boston, Massachusetts, made the remarks in an online interview with Press TV on Tuesday night.

Asked who could beat Trump in the next year’s election, Welch said, “I think anyone with integrity and an actual plan to help people [could beat him]. Barring that, people will smell a rat like they did in 2016.”

“But I don't have my hopes up,” he added.

“Democrats want to draw rancid water from the same old well... then trick, bully, and guilt people into voting 'blue no matter who,’” he said.

“But unless you cut off people's hands and bring them to the polls to mark the ballot you can't make people vote for your stooge,” he stated.

Asked about “progressive” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, Welch said, “She's just tiresome, and her ‘progressive’ credentials are way too thin. She is a former Republican.”

‘Sanders would win’

Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has announced he is running for president again in the 2020 election. The 77-year-old made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2016, losing out to Hillary Clinton, who was in turn defeated by Trump.

His call for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education has gained huge strong support among young liberals.

He mounted a fierce challenge to Clinton as he spoke to swelling crowds and garnered passionate support on social media. His 2016 campaign also rejected the use of corporate money and instead relied on small-dollar donations.

Welch said, “Sanders would win. He would have won last time. But they will pull out all the stops to keep him from getting the nomination.”

“I don't see how they can cheat any more openly than last time. But they will be more subtle too... they have already started rumors that he is a racist. He's crazy. He's too old. He is a sexist. Etc, etc, etc,” he noted.

“The press will help. They are already trying to dismiss him,” the analyst said.

Welch said that there are “may be closer to 50-50” of Sanders surviving all this.

But then he added, “The thing is that ‘survival’ is subjective. The chances of him being changed (i.e. moved to the right), cheated, killed, or neutered are all high.”

“Getting the nomination, winning the office, getting installed, sticking to certain principles he campaigns on and having a popular movement strong enough to protect him from the backlash. All of that happening is essentially like threading a needle with your eyes closed,” he observed.

The commentator warned, “The party elite is actively engaged in stopping him. The electoral system itself in the US is completely broken and easily subject to manipulation. The ruling oligarchs will stop at nothing (spending billions in 'dark money,' character assassination, up to and including actual assassination) to stop any campaign that actually threatens their wealth. The people are largely asleep and very easily controlled by media.”

‘Democrat Party can't produce a candidate that represents the bottom 90%’

“The real problem is that Sanders himself has too far to go in terms of imperialism. He is a staunch pro-imperialist in his foreign policy leanings and shows way too much lean toward believing the US as ‘exceptional nation’ crap,” he added.

“The bottom line is that the Democrat Party can't produce a candidate that fundamentally represents the bottom 90% over the 10%. It is designed to do just the opposite,” he said.

Asked what the options for the American people are, Welch said, “I tend to think there aren't many electoral options that have any potential for bringing about change. The process is far too rigged. Other forms of organization-- strikes, mobilizing people to protest in other ways, emphasizing the need for action beyond the electoral arena… all these are crucial.”

“But yes, if enough people might be persuaded to abandon the Democrats, sure, that too might help. Tough slog though,” he said.

‘We may now be approaching a 1933 moment’

“The only times there has been any actual change through the electoral system (say 1936 with the New Deal, or 1964-5 with Civil Rights Act etc) there was also enormous pressure outside the electoral process,” he noted.

“Johnson badly needed the Civil Rights Movement to push through the Act. Simply would not have happened otherwise,” he said.

“For better and for worse, we may now be approaching a 1933 moment. People are really hurting, and no one in power seems to be listening. The next recession is imminent, and it will be much worse than anything that has come before,” he pointed out.

“It's absolutely inevitable--just a matter of timing again. This ‘expansion’ (which is a mirage for a huge percentage of the population) has gone on longer than any prior stretch. It's a boom-bust system. It has to cool down sooner or later,” he observed.

'American people -- oblivious and brainwashed'

The analyst said, “The interesting thing about the US is how oblivious people are and how brainwashed they are. They believe the government's bulls*** employment figures even as they live a different reality. Every part time job counts as a job, even if several are held by the same person.”

“There is a meme going around. Being employed is meaningless if it takes 3 jobs to make one income. People believe the hype about ‘the richest country on earth’ without considering the context of how expensive it is to live here,” he said.

“This is especially true of the top 10-15% who have literally no idea what life is like for most people,” Welch said.

“In the US, this is a household income of $150,000 or above--about 85th-90th percentile. That is what it takes to be ‘middle class’ in the US,” he said.

America’s ‘full employment’ economy

He added, “The big killers are rent, child care, health care, transportation... plus the lack of any communal relations in an advanced capitalist society. There is nothing people depend on each other for. Everything has to be bought.

“Parents both work as many hours as they can stay employed at any jobs they can find. Often changing or shifting jobs, chasing salary changes, a bit more money here than there, etc.

“That is now in a ‘full employment’ economy. Yet people are still deeply in suffocating debt, unable to work their way out. They basically work for the banks and the loan companies....

“When the jobs (shitty as they are) dry up, it will be an absolute nightmare.

“It's a very weird way to live. Foreigners have a hard time understanding how unstable it is to live in ‘the land of milk and honey.’”

US ‘propaganda is very effective’

Welch said, “And the propaganda is very effective. With little knowledge of other economies, they think it is normal to work so hard for so little.”

“And they are almost required to keep up the appearance that they are 'doing well' or keeping up with the Joneses. Even when the Joneses are probably even deeper in debt than they are,” he said.

He stated that “median income in the US is around $60,000, which means 50% make more and 50% make less.”

“The 'gateway' to the middle class, which people generally peg at around $150,000 or above, puts a family in the 90th percentile or above,” he said.

“Wealth distribution is massively misunderstood. People think the wealth/income gap is much smaller than it is,” the writer pointed out.