For months, I’ve been avoiding writing on Donald Trump like the plague. I argued back in the day that even mentioning his name gave him more press than he ever deserved. No one thought he was going to get as far as he did, even as he kept winning more and more states, but I knew better than to underestimate your enemies. I warned you on this very site to do the same and now, I hate to say this, but I told you so. We can’t avoid the facts anymore, the Republican voters have spoken loud and clear: we want to make America great again.

As of right now, at least three polls have shown that Trump beats Hillary Clinton by up to five points in general election match-ups. According to those polls at least, Donald Trump is the favorite to become President #45. The guy who advocated for torturing “even if it doesn’t work,” killing civilians in the Middle East, and that the Geneva Convention is “the problem” is more popular than what was thought to be the most inevitable candidate in American history. So let’s see why this is the case and what Hillary Clinton can do to beat Trump, assuming she wins the nomination this July.

So what’s the problem with Hillary? The woman who was thought to have the presidency in the bag since she entered the race last year has been hit with every obstacle imaginable, from a 74-year-old socialist to an FBI investigation. Bernie Sanders’ authentic message of “a country that works for all of us, not just a handful of billionaires” has given a voice to minority groups that often get ignored, such as Native Americans, transgender individuals, and Muslims, while Hillary holds rallies organized by George Clooney that cost $300,000 just to attend. Her refusal to release her Wall Street and Goldman Sachs speech transcripts “until everyone else does” (which now, funnily enough, everyone has), as well as her building a private email server in her house, leads the American people to believe she is hiding something and can’t be trusted.

In order to regain the trust of the American people and avoid the horror that would be a Trump presidency, Hillary needs to make some radical changes to her campaign and, when I say radical, I don’t mean just slightly change her message. So, without further ado, I present The Raph Mariani Guide on How to Beat Trump. Feel free to take notes, Hillary:

1. Release the goddamn transcripts already. Even if we find out Hillary said the most horrible things imaginable, like telling Wall Street execs that you have their back, that’s much better than keeping it a secret and allowing voters’ imaginations go wild and think you killed someone.
2. Pick a progressive as her Vice President. Even though Mark Cuban is my favorite Shark on Shark Tank (sorry, Mr. Wonderful), he should stay on TV, where he belongs. The truth is she needs independents to win the election against The Donald, who are largely with Bernie Sanders, she needs to pick him as her running mate or, if that’s too much of a concession, pick progressive darling Elizabeth Warren. If she does, and there are two women on the ticket, Trump won’t be able to control himself, say every sexist remark in the book, and Republican women will run to a Clinton/Warren administration in herds.
3. Don’t be incremental in her ambitions. Let’s admit it, Hillary saying she isn’t in favor of universal healthcare and universal public college, two issues important to the progressive base, is a huge turn off. The candidate who voted for a trillion-dollar phony war that killed at least 200,000 civilians saying a $15 minimum wage isn’t practical and achievable has made Trump a viable option in the eyes of the middle and lower classes who have given up on the establishment. In the 90s, she would be right to move to the center to try to get Independent voters but, in 2016, when the country is more left-leaning, it’s vital she move as far to the left as she can. She is, after all, a Democrat.
4. Don’t take Bernie voters for granted. Recent polls suggest that 15 per cent of Bernie voters will vote for the Donald if Hillary gets the nomination. Three words: iceberg straight ahead. The Democratic establishment has constantly said that it’s Bernie’s job to unite the party to fall in line behind Hillary, which is weird because the saying goes “Republicans fall in line; Democrats fall in love.” It’s the job of the winner to earn the vote of the base, not the loser. After all, Obama never would have gotten Hillary’s voters to switch sides if he hadn’t made her Secretary of State. Hillary needs to take two or three policy positions from Bernie, like getting money out of politics, and incorporate them into her platform if she ever hopes to gain the support of Bernie-or-Busters.

Of course, there is one other thing that the DNC can do to beat Donald Trump, and it’s much simpler than all the other points I mentioned: nominate Bernie Sanders. Now, before you roll your eyes and groan for a good ten seconds, hear me out on this one. The same polls that have Trump beating Hillary have Bernie beating Trump by up to almost 20 points, and I’m not joking. I could also mention that, if she gets the nomination, she will be the most unpopular politician the DNC has ever nominated, and the second most unpopular of any party in American history, second only to the Donald. Unpopular candidates lead to low turnout, and Republicans win when turnout is low. Not to mention the 12 FBI agents currently investigating her and that she can’t run the country if she gets indicted. What should be a cakewalk could easily be a coin flip if the DNC isn’t careful and we could potentially succeed Barack Obama with Donald Trump. We could elect a lying sociopath and then Orange really will be the new Black.