Update: April 11, 2016: I posted this story on Reddit and received feedback from an IBM retiree who attended this shareholders meeting. I’m adding his comment to the bottom of this diary because it provides additional context and explains why I have actually understated the positive effect that Bernie had on this sequence of events.

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At the time of my writing, the most shared diary from Daily Kos is one that attempts to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon between Bernie Sanders and fracking. It was thoroughly debunked shortly after it was posted. Of course, that’s no reason to stop sending it out over social media when there is a chance that it could have an impact on those who lack sufficient understanding. Also, too, it includes the word “hypocrisy” several times.

This diary really isn’t about that except to say that an index fund really isn’t a bad way to go for a member of the United States Congress. Since index funds sample the entire index, they pretty much remove the possibility of conflict of interest, or appearance thereof. It seems preferable to owning and managing actual direct shares of a company, no? Many members of congress do exactly that, though. And it can be awkward when who someone owns half a million dollar share in a company is tasked with fussing at the CEO about dodging taxes. Or voting on legislation that could have a direct impact on one’s own finances.

Some of us assume that Bernie is better than that, but how much do we really know about this guy? Has he been properly vetted? What darkness awaits as we explore his past? Well, it turns out that there was a time before he decided to run for president that Bernie did exactly what I’m criticizing here. He made a direct purchase of IBM stock and seemingly had very specific motivation for doing so.

Fact: In early 2000, Bernie Sanders purchased five entire shares of IBM stock. The dollar amount of that purchase would have been upwards of $550.00. Where did Sanders get that kind of money? To put it another way, that’s nearly as much as some presidential candidates pay for haircuts.

His motivation:

Joining the IBM workers at the stockholders meeting Tuesday was Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has described himself as a socialist, but became a capitalist to get into the meeting. Sanders purchased five shares of IBM stock to buy his way in to the annual meeting and participate in a vote to reverse the company's pension plan changes.



"As a result of what IBM did your gonna have thousands of workers who are gonna see substantially smaller pensions," said Sanders.

He also wanted to speak:

Employee Complaints. Attending the meeting were about 100 IBM employees from 16 different work locations. Some complained that their views weren't fully heard. The meeting, which was scheduled to last until noon, ended a half-hour early. Just as U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who is an outspoken critic of IBM's new pension plan, stepped up to the microphone, IBM's Mr. Gerstner concluded the meeting. A spokeswoman for IBM later explained that there was a time parameter for the question-and-answer session and that Mr. Gerstner stuck to it.

Then:

Asked what he planned to do with his newly-acquired IBM stock, Sanders, who didn't get to speak at the stockholders meeting, said, "We'll I think now that I was here and didn't even have the opportunity to speak I'll be selling it soon."

Obviously, this story didn’t have a happy ending. I almost wrote about this last year, but didn’t because of fear that it would play in to the existing narrative of Bernie never getting anything done. Hopefully, we’re all past that now and can acknowledge that Bernie has been a very accomplished member of both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. This is one of the many stories about Bernie that has caught my attention over the years. It says as much about his character as do his successes. He is always looking for different ways to speak for those who have lost their voice. He failed here, but he wasn’t afraid to try. That’s a thing.

I’ll go back to that other diary for a quote:

It’s for that reason I’ll drop this info on you, and then you can decide on the level of hypocrisy if any.

Maybe the same measure should be applied to this diary. 15 years ago, Bernie purchased stock for the purpose of helping working class people. How well does that match with the Bernie that you see on the campaign trail today? Hypocrisy or not? Will leave for the reader to decide.

Added 4/11 (with permission):