Billionaires for Bush was a

culture jamming Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It atte ...

political

street theater Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or university ...

organization that satirically purported to support

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, drawing attention to policies which were perceived to benefit

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

s and the super-wealthy. The group would typically dress as parodies of wealthy "establishment" figures in tuxedos while proclaiming slogans such as "Two Million Jobs Lost—It's a Start". A secret

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

intelligence report, based on undercover surveillance of the group in 2003 and 2004 in advance of the

2004 Republican National Convention The 2004 Republican National Convention took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The convention is one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings at which the Republican candidates fo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, described the Billionaires as "an activist group forged as a mockery of the current president and political policies".

History

Forbes 1999

The organization had first been founded by Andrew Boyd as "Billionaires for Forbes", but Forbes left the 2000 race for the Republican Presidential nomination early due to a lack of adequate voter support. In 1999, Billionaires were present as

Steve Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...

announced his candidacy for President and jeered him as he signed a

flat tax A flat tax (short for flat-rate tax) is a tax with a single rate on the taxable amount, after accounting for any deductions or exemptions from the tax base. It is not necessarily a fully proportional tax. Implementations are often progressiv ...

pledge in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. The Billionaire Manual describes the action:

They wore conservative jackets and ties (but no bowler hats, etc.) and carried innocuous signs such as "Run, Steve, Run." Happy to have grass-roots support, the Forbes handlers (who believed the Billionaires were students from a nearby business school) placed them in front of the cameras, very near to the podium from which Forbes was speaking. However, each of their signs had another sign behind it. And behind their banner (which read "Forbes 2000: He wants YOU to win") was another banner, waiting. At the most dramatic moment of his announcement, the Billionaires flipped their signs, and pulled away the large banner to reveal one which read: "Billionaires for Forbes: Because Inequality isn't Growing Fast Enough." The Billionaires started chanting "Let workers pay the tax so investors can relax!" and other slogans. Forbes and his handlers were completely thrown off, a little tussle ensued, and the Billionaires were pushed off to the side away from the cameras. Not wanting to miss the action, half the TV crews left the Forbes speech to cover the Billionaires. The action got lots of coverage.

Bush (or Gore) 2000

During the 2000 U.S. presidential election the organization was led by Andrew Boyd and Jenny Levison as "Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)," with the message that whichever candidate became president, corporations and the wealthy were guaranteed to benefit. The group spoke out under the motto "Because Economic Inequality Is Not Growing Fast Enough". The group appeared at the

2000 Democratic National Convention The 2000 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention for the Democratic Party. The convention nominated Vice President Al Gore for president and Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut for vice president. The ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, satirically praising major corporations for their financial support of the convention by attempting to deliver thank you cards to

Fleet Bank FleetBoston Financial was a Boston, Massachusetts-based bank created in 1999 by the merger of Fleet Financial Group and BankBoston. In 2004 it merged with Bank of America; all of its banks and branches were converted to Bank of America. Histor ...

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is on ...

and

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas i ...

. The Billionaires planned a "Million Billionaires March" at the 2000 Republican National Convention in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

held the day before the convention. Other activities included a "Vigil for

corporate welfare Corporate welfare is a phrase used to describe a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment for corporations. The definition of corporate welfare is sometimes restricted to direct government subsidie ...

" and an auction of corporate advertising rights for the

Liberty Bell The Liberty Bell, previously called the State House Bell or Old State House Bell, is an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia. Originally placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now renamed Independence ...

Bush 2004

At a March 2004 fundraiser on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

attended by President Bush, Billionaires for Bush came to show their "support", with men dressed in tuxedos with top hats and women in evening gowns and

long gloves Ladies' evening gloves or opera gloves are a type of formal glove that reaches beyond the elbow. Ladies' gloves for formal and semi-formal wear come in three lengths for women: wrist, elbow, and opera or full-length (over the elbow, usually r ...

. The group's laminated posters featured such slogans as "Leave No Billionaire Behind" and "Corporations Are People Too". Their largest events to date took place as part of the 2004 Republican National Convention protest activity. A separate group, however, continued on in the plague-on-both-your-houses style as "Billionaires For Bush Or Kerry". A "Million Billionaires March" on July 27, 2004, in conjunction with the

2004 Democratic National Convention The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North Car ...

in Boston, Massachusetts, attracted 150 marchers who presented a faux check made out for the amount of "whatever it takes" to the local offices of the Republican Party, as part of an effort to "defeat" Kerry. Lawsuits filed against the

after the 2004 Republican Convention uncovered the fact that Billionaires for Bush had been among groups infiltrated by the NYPD by its undercover officers gathering intelligence in advance of the convention.

2005 and beyond

The group remained active after 2004, but was less prominent. It used its established

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

to raise awareness to a myriad of economic issues including

Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

privatization, the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, the

Estate Tax An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died. International tax law distinguishes between an es ...

and

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

. The group was led by a triumvirate of co-chairs Elissa Jiji, Marco Ceglie, and Melody Bates.

Attire

Members typically dressed in stereotypically wealthy attire, such as

tuxedos Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element fo ...

and

top hat A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...

s or

evening gown An evening gown, evening dress or gown is a long dress usually worn at formal occasions. The drop ranges from ballerina (mid-calf to just above the ankles), tea (above the ankles), to full-length. Such gowns are typically worn with evening ...

s and

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s and adopt names like "Mo Bludfer Oyle" (more blood for oil, a reference to the Iraq war) and "Phil T. Rich" (filthy rich). Members also dressed in less stereotypical attire to perform more subtle pranks, as described in the Forbes example, above.

Events

Examples of Billionaire events include: * Musical entertainment at anti-Bush events * Thanking

on his birthday for their tax cuts * Protesting protests of the Bush administration * Taking a pro-war stance at peace rallies * Cross-country

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...

tours * A petition to allow oil drilling and logging of

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development ...

in San Francisco * Bush League baseball These events and message were designed to attract media coverage.

Slogans

Some of their

political slogan The following is a list of notable political slogans. Political slogan (listed alphabetically) A * Abki baar Modi Sarkar – Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign slogan for 2014 Indian Parliamentary Elections * ACT UP, Fight Back, Fight AIDS – ...

s include "Small Government, Big Wars," "Because We're All In This Together, Sort Of," "Two Million Jobs Lost—It's a Start," "Leave No Billionaire Behind,"Dwyer, Jim
"Is Satire in a Slump? 'Yes' and 'No'"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 16, 2008. Accessed August 20, 2008. "Outside an event in Manhattan where Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, was speaking, the Billionaires ran a faux counterdemonstration ('Leave No Billionaire Behind') to a real one mounted by the Sierra Club. ... In a report stamped "N.Y.P.D. Secret," the police wrote: 'Billionaires for Bush is an activist group forged as a mockery of the current president and political policies.'" "Make Social Security Neither," and "Corporations are People Too."Trigaux, Robert
"Satire in the streets"
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'', August 31, 2004. Accessed August 20, 2008. "They shouted slogans like ''Four More Wars,'' sang songs skewering Republican economic policy, and held signs ranging from ''Free Ken Lay'', ''Privatize Everything'' and ''Corporations Are People, Too'' to ''Widen the Healthcare Gap'' and ''Outsource: Because Cheap Labor Costs Less.''"

References

External links

Official siteBillionaires for Bush Records, 2000-2013
TAM 725, located at the Taminent Archives at New York University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Billionaires for Bush Culture jamming George W. Bush Billionaires High society (social class)