Surprising Sanders

WHEN I FOUND OUT that Bernie Sanders would be attending the annual Wal Mart shareholders convention, I had mixed emotions. Shock and surprise, mostly. A Good healthy does of joy and excitement. No small amount of fear and dread. heart pounding anticipation. Strong, mixed emotions. I had no idea. I never woulda thunk it. Bernie Sanders, the king of the champions of the working class, inserting himself ins the very bosom of stock owning, corporate capitalistic America! I immediately started trying to imagine the details. had he been invited? Was he responding to an invitation, or was he intending to go in protest? Would he be allowed inside the building, or would he be limited to screaming through a megaphone at a few dozen protesters bearing signs saying Pay the workers! If he were allowed to speak to the assembled multitudes of upper middle class share holders twenty thousand strong, what, on Earth would he, could he say? Let's keep those profits soaring? how would he be received, a flaming socialist in the midst of the land of material wealth for profit? When I mentioned the event to a friend, my friend said "He'll be outside. They'll never let him inside the building". It turned out that Sanders was indeed allowed inside, had been invited, gave a speech, in which he said "You might think that any family with one hundred and seventy billion dollars could afford to pay its workers a living wage"...and got cheered. Not a frenzied, maniacal MAGA Trump-Hitlerian cheer, or anything like that, but, a good steady, solid round of applause, from what must have been mostly conservative capitalistic types. Go figure. The three wealthiest families in American have more combined wealth than the bottom half of the entire American population, amazingly, Sanders reminded his audience. IN many cases, people are both employees of Wal Mart and shareholders both. This is how working class values force their way into a shareholder convention, against the wishes of the billionaire owners. Most American agree with Sanders, more than agree with Trump. Surveys consistently indicate that the United States is a majority progressive country, which favors taxing the wealthy, greater economic equality, and increased pay for the lowest payed workers. When sanders read into the record a proposal to change Wal Mart policy to favor and assist the interests of the workers, the billionaires owners thanked Mr. Sanders for presenting his point of view, indicated that there was no way in hell anything he said was ever going to happen or made any sense, and went right on rolling with the billionaire oriented long standing Wal Mart agenda. What else would you expect? The poor people greatly outnumber the wealthy, which is why the wealthy do not want democracy, and have always prevented democracy from existing. But most people in America agree with Sanders. The trick is to get them to vote.