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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) promised to discuss the truth at the Las Vegas stop of his Fighting Oligarchy tour, and he did.
Sanders also delivered a message to Trump and the billionaire class, “
Video:
Sen. Sanders said in part:
We will not accept an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires run the government.
We will not accept an authoritarian society with a president who undermines the Constitution every day, and is working aggressively to take away our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. No, we will not accept a society of massive economic inequalities, where the very rich are becoming much richer while working families across the country struggle to put food on the table. In the richest country in the history of the world, we demand and will achieve an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the richest.
It seems to me that before we can effectively determine the best way forward, it's important to do what is very rarely done in Congress or in the corporate media. And that is to have a frank discussion about the economic and political realities facing our country. So let's do something really radical.
You ready? Let's tell the truth.
Today, we have two very different Americas. In one of those Americas, the wealthiest people have never ever in the history of our country had it so good. People on top are doing extraordinarily well today. We have more income and wealth inequality in our country than we have ever had. The three wealthiest people in America.
Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, these guys, those three people alone own more wealth than the half of American society, 170 million people, 170 million people, the top 1 percent now owns more wealth, than the bottom 90 percent and CEOs of major corporations now make 300 times what their average workers make. But it's not just income and wealth inequality.
Today, we have more concentration of ownership than we have ever had. While the profits on Wall Street and corporate America saw a handful of giant corporations dominate sector after sector, whether it's agriculture, transportation, media, financial services, small number of very, very large international corporations.
And they charge us outrageously high prices for the products they sell us. If you could believe it, three Wall Street firms, three firms, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
The major stockholders of 95 percent of American corporations. Let me say this. The 1 percent live completely and isolated lives from the rest of this country. They have no clue what is going on in the real world in their gated communities. They fly around the world in the private jets or the helicopters that they own. They have well-trained nannies taking care of their babies. They send their kids to the best private schools and colleges. Sometimes they take vacations, not in a Motel 6. Not in a national park, but in their very own islands that they own.
And for the very, very richest, they have fun flying off into outer space on their very own spaceships. And maybe they should stay there.
There is another America, the America that you know, and the America you live in. And in that America, 60%, 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. And millions of workers are trying to get by on starvation wages. Unlike Donald Trump, I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck. And I know, as you know, something about that reality.
And it is a reality that I will never forget. And I have a feeling as I look out at you today that many of you know that reality.
Even with thousands of people showing up, the Fighting Oligarchy rally did not get mainstream media coverage because even the supposedly liberal-leaning networks like MSNBC are run by people who believe that the United States is a conservative country. They have convinced themselves that people like Bernie Sanders and AOC are the radical left-wing outliers.
They and their corporate owners are no better for working people than Trump and Musk.
Change will have to sprout at the grassroots and come from the bottom up because popular resistance is the only way to defeat an oligarch.
What did you think of Sen. Sanders’s speech? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
English (US)