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အတိုချုံးပြောရရင်
During George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, the Billionaires for Bush used humour, guerrilla theatre, and creative media actions to dramatize economic inequality and political corruption in the US.
“Some people call you the elite,” George W. Bush joked to his wealthy funders, “I call you my base.” Whether US Republican presidential candidate Bush meant it as a joke or not, the Billionaires for Bush (B4B) campaign used humour, guerrilla theatre, and creative media actions to show the country how true the quip was. Working to expose how the Republican Party serves the interests of the super-rich, the Billionaires also addressed the broader issues of economic inequality and corporate greed.
An early version of the campaign in 2000, “Billionaires for Bush (or Gore),” had spread virally via the internet and mainstream media exposure. It rebranded itself for the 2004 election, taking as its crusade the defeat of Bush. The New York City chapter took the lead, assembling talented volunteers, among them professional designers, media producers, and actors. It then put the campaign pieces in place. A stylish logo swapped the Republican elephant with a piggy bank stuffed with bills. Satirical slogans — “Repeal the First Amendment,” “Free the Forbes 400,” “Corporations are people too” — adorned bumper stickers, buttons, and a slick website, often mimicking the look of Bush’s own propaganda. A songwriter produced tuneful renditions of what the super-wealthy really think, performed by meticulously rehearsed singers. “Billionaires” adopted personae, with names and costumes to match, spoofing iconic versions of the .01 percent: the Monopoly-style robber baron (Phil T. Rich), the dim-witted heiress (Alexis Anna Rolls), the trust-fund fuck-up (Monet Oliver D’Place), and so on.
The media was smitten by the Billionaires’ glamour and charmed by their say-the-opposite-of-what-you-believe theatrics.
Soon, the Billionaires could be found talking down to “the little people” at Bush campaign events, left-wing rallies, and street corners. They could also be found all over the mainstream media, garnering thousands of hits, including multiple features in the New York Times and on network and cable TV. Even the chant “Watch more Fox News, then you’ll share our right-wing views!” made it to the air . . . on Fox News.
Media coverage was generated by carefully planned hoaxes, such as the appearance, to a throng of adoring Billionaires, of a Karl Rove impostor (Bush’s senior advisor) at a GOP fundraiser. Other times, the campaign outsmarted the authorities to attract the media glare, such as when it held a croquet match in Central Park, from which a half-million anti-Bush demonstrators had been banned by New York’s mayor. The media was smitten by the Billionaires’ glamour and charmed by their say-the-opposite-of-what-you-believe theatrics.
The campaign was designed to be participatory and national. The core idea was easy both to replicate and embellish. Activists could download the materials they needed to do local actions, while a field organizer helped set up chapters in key swing states like Ohio. By late July, the hundreds of “Billionaires” from thirty states who showed up to protest at the Republican National Convention far exceeded the number of actual billionaires stumping for their President.
Deflated by Bush’s narrow victory, the B4B idea nonetheless lived on, generating spin-off campaigns such as Billionaires for Wealthcare, active in the health care debates of 2008-9 (see: STORY: Public Option Annie). Although, in 2004, the campaign sometimes felt like a clever joke in the wilderness, it in fact anticipated many of the core concerns of Occupy Wall Street and other “Great Recession”-era activism.
Originally published in Beautiful Trouble.
အဓိကနည်းဗျူဟာများ
Well-crafted actions, occurring simultaneously in disparate locales, amplified the campaign’s sense of unity, power, and reach. The B4B repertoire of distributed actions included Cheap Labour Day, “Education Is Not for Everyone Day” at the beginning of the school year, and others. “Dick Cheney is Innocent Day” began as a national day of action featuring coordinated, candle-lit vigils in front of Vice-President Dick Cheney’s residence in Washington D.C., state capital buildings, an official Cheney speaking engagement in Milwaukee, and outside the windows of the Fox News headquarters in New York City. Flyers were produced listing Dick’s many crimes (but protesting how baseless they were, of course!) and made available for easy download, alongside a national press release
The Billionaires for Bush spectacle was a mind-bending double- or triple-take: apparent Bush supporters, spewing over-the-top pro-Bush rhetoric, were really Bush opponents, who made the Republicans appear both venal and ridiculous. Some observers remained fatally confused as to the group’s message. Occasionally, true conservatives begged the Billionaires not to make Bush look bad by being so brazenly pro-rich, as with this email to the campaign from an exasperated Republican: “Shut up! You are not helping the President get re-elected. You are making the Republican Party look like a bunch of out-of-touch elitists! Assholes!” Most people, however, soon got the joke: that the Republicans, despite their populist rhetoric, are a party of, by, and for the wealthy. Sometimes the Billionaires also playfully “jammed” the earnest culture of the political left. Retorting “This is what plutocracy looks like!” and “Whose Streets? Wall Street!” to familiar lefty chants, the Billionaires suggested that progressive advocates of We the People had little inkling of the wealth and influence they were up against. The Billionaires didn’t just try to speak truth to power, but also about power.
အဓိကအခြေခံမူများ
The Billionaires differentiated themselves from other anti-Bush activists by their upper-crust look and ironic messaging, which denounced the Republicans by parodying their reactionary principles. As something new and different, B4B avoided the media’s boredom with the all-too-predictable angry protesters protesting, well, angrily. The result was media exposure of B4B messaging vastly disproportionate to the group’s size and resources.
Politicians often avoid any direct reference to their ultimate agenda, especially when their plan is to plunder. One of the jobs of the activist is to expose their true intent. This unmasking was central to B4B shtick, and was the basis for particular actions. In 2005, the Billionaires joined the fight against Bush’s plan to privatize social security, which would have been the biggest shift of capital out of the public sector in history. To dramatize this outcome, Billionaires for Bush auctioned off Social Security in the most public forum available: eBay. The auction limited bidding to Wall Street bankers and casino operators and broke down the numbers on exactly what was to be gained by the wealthy and lost by the rest. Though eBay quickly took down the auction, more than 25,000 people visited the sale, and bidding peaked at $99,999,999. For days, media coverage continued to spread the message: “Billionaires for Bush auctioned off Social Security on eBay.”