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Billionaires on the Move"Billionaires for Bush" are True Fans of the President. For Real?
By Ute Thon
In Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)
Sunday, April 4, 2004. Nr. 14, Page 12.
New York. It seemed like your average demo. It began when a couple dozen anti-Bush demonstrators gathered in front of the nightclub "Eugene" with handmade placards, earnest from head to tow. At this tony establishment the Republicans were having a fundraiser; the guests included A-listers like Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Karl Rove, one of George W. Bush's closest aids.
The police had banished the protesters behind barricades. Members of the S ecret Service, with their signature sunglasses, kept a watchful eye. All of a sudden, a new troop of people — men in smoking jackets and top hats, women in evening gowns and pearl necklaces — rushed to the club entrance and unfurled a professionally printed banner in patriotic red-white-and-blue: "Billionaires for Bush: Government of, by, and for the Corporations."
While the security officials puzzled over how to separate the pro- and anti-Bush people, a black limousine rolled up. It let out a stout man with thinning hair and gold-rimmed glasses. "There's Rove!" screamed the crowd. Cameramen descended, and the Secret Service cleared a path through the throng. Instead of vanishing without comment into the club, the man from Washington appealed to the jeering demonstrators: "I can assure you, when our president is re-elected, we're going to start more wars and earn even more money." He was, as it now became clear to the police, not Karl Rove, but an actor, and the entire action was a piece of political theatre.
It's a typical scene for the "Billionaires for Bush," a group of young activists, who try with satire to expose what they see as the misconduct of the Bush administration. Among the members are students, artists, theatre-types — many under 30 — who regard the common methods of political protest — with their deadly-serious slogans and left-Birkenstock aesthetic — as musty. Instead, they masquerade at their actions like super-rich Bush supporters, and praise the President as the puppet of Big Capital. Such fresh irony irritates not only the traditional left scene, but also the true Bush flag-wavers. On their website, the "Billionaires" intone, "We think we're only one Presidency away from winning our long battle to ensure that America will always be the place where corporations come first and social services are a freak of history."
A recent demonstration in Long Island culminated in a surreal exchange. The Bush supporters faulted the politics of the counter-demonstrators for the loss of jobs; the false billionaires countered that a jobless recovery would be for the best, because one mustn't squander money on wages.
Absurd scenes like this have earned the "Billionaires" headlines. The Boston Globe praised their "well-organized satire tactics," the New York Times sees in them "the birth of meta-protest." For founding member Andrew Boyd, humor is simply the best way to motivate young people to participate in political discourse. "It gives things an ironic sensibility, which is a deep current in youth culture," said the 39-year old political activist with a Harvard diploma, who has made a name for himself through his writings on politics and culture. Indeed, the "Billionaires" play with the same silly seriousness which has made "The Simpsons" such popular cultural figures. Anyone with a sharp wit and a knack for persiflage can participate.
The group is only loosely organized. The sole requirement for membership is a fanciful nome de guerre. Boyd takes the pseudonym Phil T. Rich (which can be read as "filthy rich," "stinkreich"), and Elissa Jiji, a lecturer at the City University and one of the leading creative forces in the "Billionaires," calls herself Meg A. Bucks.
At the New York "Billionaires" strategy meeting on Wednesday, 40 or so people gathered in a chic New Age Loft in SoHo, which an anonymous supporter had made available. The activists were asked to kindly place their shoes by the door. So they discussed in their socks and amidst Tibetan prayer flags their next action. On April 15, America's tax day, they want to go to New York's main Post Office and thank the little people for "helping to pay our portion of the taxes." On the living room table, costume-designer Miyong Non (alias "Miss K. Ching," a name that mimics the sound of a cash register) had laid out the latest accessories: dazzling, if fake, rings; hip-hop style silver necklaces with the Enron logo; a brand new smoking jacket. Action Coordinator Alice Meaker, alias Iona Bigga Yacht ("I own a bigger yacht", "My yacht is bigger"), reports that there are about 28 local "Billionaire" chapters, including one in South Korea. They then sought a catchy slogan for their actions on Labor Day. "Cheap Labor Day," perhaps?
What it all comes down to, however, is that the "Billionaires" want to be more than just another comedy routine for the politically challenged masses. Eventually Meaker pulls out a map of America. "Swing states" like Florida, Minnesota and Ohio, where the margins of victory and defeat may be very narrow, are marked in gold. "These are our most important areas of action", she explains. Behind the satirical actions of the faux Billionaires there is a real fear that a second term with Bush would be catastr ophic. In preventing this from happening, anything goes — including stupid jokes and clever subversion.
"These Days No One Wants to Work Anymore": Two "Billionaires" on Bush, Banks, and House Servants
Q. Do you think the war in Iraq is justified?
Meg A. Bucks (MB): Well, in any case, it's very lucrative for us.
Monty Moneybucks (MM): I don' get these demonstrations. It's just a bunch of whiny leftists who don't understand how things really work in America. They should go back to their houses, shop some more, and watch Fox News.
Q. Despite staggering national debts you still favor tax cuts. Isn't that dangerous?
MB: We have nothing against profiting from deficits. After all, we own the banks, we loan money to the government, and spike the interest rates.
Q. What about the social component?
MB: Do you mean health care and the school system? I don't know how anyone could tolerate public schools, when there are such good private ones. As to job creation: Have you ever tried to get a good housemaid? These days, no one wants to work anymore.
MM: It's essentially irresponsible to give away more money to these lazy people, or for hospitals or public transportation. It comes out of our fortunes.
Translation by Count Profit, Rick S. Tum, and Jörg Onnapay.
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