As for the Democratic convention itself, Mason says the group has avoided the enclosed “free speech zones” set up for protests immediately by the FleetCenter—let alone going inside the building.
“It’s been wise to skirt the pen,” she says, explaining that the Billionaires instead sought a license and a police escort for their march, well outside the convention.
Members agree, though, that the success of the Billionaires’ campaign relies on few tangible convention-week results.
“To be totally honest, it’s more like just getting publicity,” McMillian says of the group’s events.
“It was really more for show,” Mason says about the abortive presentation of the mock check. “A lot of what the Billionaires do—it’s funny, and it’s pointing out the truth by being funny.... While we definitely do want to confront Democrats and Republicans, a lot of it is more drawing attention to these issues of class that are not being addressed.”
Of course, the risks of taking a headily Swiftian approach to social protest are obvious: what if the joke, which is after all pretty serious, flies right past those in the audience?
“Every once in a while you meet some people who actually think we’re billionaires, and I guess that’s not an example of a successful protest,” McMillian says. “But 99 percent of the people got it.”
WHO THEY ARE
The Billionaires themselves can be a bit fuzzy on their unironic identity when it goes beyond their talking points on class-based issues like health care, the minimum wage and war profiteering. Members are prohibited from explicitly endorsing any presidential candidate out of character—and indeed, when the group was founded on a smaller level in 2000 it called itself “Billionaires for Bush or Gore.”
These days their kill-him-with-kindness target has shrunken to Bush alone, and the Billionaires keep their punchlines to a tight list of issues. Their schtick mentions Kerry only in faux-negative terms, but Billionaires are not allowed to support the nominee seriously. What to do, then, with the four-day binge of Democratic boosterism that is the convention?
“The DNC has been an interesting event to try to plan, because we had to figure out what our message was going to be about John Kerry,” Mason says.
Things will be much clearer at next month’s Republican National Convention in New York City, where the Billionaires—just wrapping up their limo tour—can jokily support Bush with no qualms.
“That’s going to be much more of a celebration, and this is more of a protest,” Mason explains.
McMillian has more ominous words.
“The Republican convention will be a totally different vibe,” he says, alluding to a “huge intimidating police presence” that he says will watch over the enormous crowds of protestors expected to show up. “The emotional intensity will be ramped up by about a thousand percent.”
For the time being, McMillian is content to enjoy the Billionaires’ activities in Boston.
“From my perspective, anything that gets people energized and makes protest fun is a good thing,” he says. “We can still get a message across that’s humorous and relevant, and people enjoy seeing us.”
—Staff writer Simon W. Vozick-Levinson can be reached at vozick@fas.harvard.edu.