Bernie Sanders may be about to run as a third party candidate in the general election, whether he knows it or not. And whether he wants to or not. Sounds ludicrous? Hear me out…

Like anyone who plays with fire, Sanders is about to get burned by his own revolution. Sanders has lost control of his unruly movement, and the Bernie or Bust crowd will not go gladly into that good night – even after Clinton’s inevitable nomination, when Bernie will no doubt urge his millennial minions to get on board with her.

“Okay,” you say, “but no one can force Sanders to run in the fall. Right?” Wrong.

Yes, they can get him to run. Or at least, they can run his name. You see, even after the two major parties wrap up their conventions, there are several weeks’ time to get new names on various states’ ballots. I predict that the Trump campaign will surreptitiously ignite and fund a secret, subversive movement to get Bernie Sanders name on as many state ballots as possible.

True, they won’t be able to get it on every ballot. But they don’t have to; they only have to get him on enough ballots to swing a few purple states away from Hillary and to Trump. If Trump can get Sanders’ name on the ballots in, say, Ohio, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, Iowa, Wisconsin, and/or Pennsylvania, that could flip more than enough electoral votes to deny Clinton 270.

Even if the Machiavellian plan only serves to throw the election into the House of Representatives, the GOP majority there would ensure that the Republican candidate wins the presidency.

And they wouldn’t even need Sanders’ permission to do it. WhitePages.com lists over 134 people in the USA named either Bernie Sanders or Bernard Sanders. Any one of them can be recruited to put his real name up for president. Remember, the legalities of who it actually is don’t matter. All that matters is that someone with the name Bernard Sanders is there for disappointed Bernie fans to check off as a protest vote.

By now you are probably asking, But aren’t there laws against that? Haven’t I read about “sore loser” laws that prevent a candidate from running in the general after he’s competed in the primaries and lost?

Yes, there are. But remember, this isn’t the real Bernie Sanders putting his name on those ballots. It would be someone else with a similar name. And in some states a losing candidate could run as an independent as long as they aren’t affiliated with an organized party.

As for filing deadlines, they are not as daunting as you may think. Ohio only requires 5,000 signatures by August 10th. New York needs 15,000 by Aug. 23rd. Virginia requires 15,000 by Aug. 26th. Iowa seeks 1,500 by Aug. 19th. Minnesota ask for just 2,000 by Aug. 23rd. Pennsylvania asks for just 5,000 by Aug. 1 – tight but doable if they start soon. And Wisconsin demands a mere 2,000 by August 2.

Getting the petition signatures should not be a major problem. Trump’s henchmen could recruit the massive Bernie or Bust movement itself to do their legwork for them; many would be happy to. For a chance to screw Hillary, they’d do it in a New York values minute.

And as for legal challenges from Sanders himself, sure, he could try.  But legal challenges cost a lot of money. And it’s a lot harder and takes a lot longer to get a name off a state ballot than to get it on one. Even if Trump’s forces could only get Bernie’s name on one or two large state ballots…or even if he was unsuccessful in all of them…just the publicity of it alone could keep the Bernie or Bust movement alive and well-publicized right up to the election.

Remember, the goal is simply to give Bernie’s sore losers a place to extract their revenge on the Democratic party come election day, and to syphon off her liberal base.

Imagine it’s October. You see a TV ad hitting “Shillery” for her Wall Street speeches, the email scandal and her “corrupt” Clinton Foundation “slush fund.” The ad simulates her doing a perp walk, led away in handcuffs by special agents in FBI windbreakers. It ends with Hillary behind bars with the tag line, Paid for by Citizens for Bernie. And that tag line will be true and legal, because the GOP’s dark money forces can create a SuperPac (or several) dedicated solely to advancing the Bernie or Bust movement and name it anything they want. Whether he agrees to it or not.

Would Trump do something that slimy and nefarious? Absolutely! He’s Donald Trump. He’s already planted stories about Ted Cruz’s marital infidelities and implicated his father in the JFK assassination. This would be a step up in class. And with the increasing probability that NeverTrump Republicans will turn to Libertarian Gary Johnson or Tea Party Senator Ben Sasse to steal some of his votes, Trump will see the dirty dead as good for the gander.

I hesitated whether to publish this idea, not wanting to be the impetus of Hillary Clinton’s defeat. But if I can think of it, certainly consummate dirty tricksters Roger Stone or Cory Lewandowski will. Because if there’s one thing they learned from the primaries, it’s that their man Donald plays well in a crowded field.

But what if my little column does in fact spark this far-fetched idea to go viral, causing my candidate to lose? Hey, if a no-name blogger can take down the entire Democratic party, it was built on quicksand to begin with.

So happy days, Bernie or Busters! You can still vote for someone named Bernie Sanders this fall. And can still help elect someone named Donald J. Trump.