“At a time when we have a Republican president and Republican Party whose leadership and agenda are strongly opposed by the American people, now is the time for real change.”

Following a massive wave of progressive victories in elections throughout the U.S. earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) argued in a Politico op-ed on Friday that the Democratic Party must embrace “fundamental reforms” and “welcome into its ranks millions of working people and young people” if it is to build on this grassroots momentum and overcome the “unprecedented crisis” posed by the Trump administration.

Sanders’ plea for systemic change within the party that has been decimated at nearly every level of government over the past eight years comes just ahead of the final meeting of the DNC’s “Unity Reform Commission,” a group formed in the aftermath of the 2016 Democratic primary with the stated goal of “ensur[ing] that inclusivity is upheld in all things that we do.”

Some of the reforms Sanders says the commission “desperately” needs to consider during its December meeting if it is to have any hope of defeating Trump’s “agenda of the billionaire class” include:

• Reducing the power of superdelegates, which currently have “the power to control the nominating process and ignore the will of voters”;

• “Making voting easier, and not harder” by “ending the absurdity of closed primary systems” that lock out independent voters and fully embracing “universal and same-day voter registration”;

• Developing a process that makes it easier for working people and students to participate in the voting process in states that use caucuses “even if they are not physically able to attend a caucus”; and

• “Fully appreciat[ing] Donna Brazile’s revelations and understand the need for far more transparency in the financial and policy workings of the Democratic Party.” Brazile, Sanders wrote, “exposed the rot.”