A Term Like Capitalism Is

It's Certainly Something We Haven't Seen Before In Terms Of A Fully Commercial Global Brand - Really A Family Of Brands - Not Just Trump But Also Ivanka, Who Has A Sub-brand. We've Never Seen This Before. We've Had Presidents In Financial Conflicts Of Interest Before, But This Phenomenon Where A Sitting President Image Avatar Is Out There Selling Golf Courses And Condominiums, Even As He Is In Office And Having The Value Of His Personal Brand Inflated Dramatically By Fact Of His Being President, Is New Territory.

I Do Believe That Our Ability To Jam The Trump Brand Is Somewhat Limited. I Think We Can Chip Away At It, But Ultimately The Way To Undermine The Trump Brand Is A Better Product In The Political Marketplace, If You'll Forgive The Capitalist Metaphor. I Do Think That The Negative Messaging On Trump Is Severely Limited Because He Is Tapping Into A Very Deep, And In Many A Rightful, Desire For Deep Change, And A Feeling That The Whole System Is So Broken And So Corrupt That You Might As Well Raise A Middle Finger As Some Kind Of Act Of Agency.

I See The Gap Ads As Being A Great Example Of How Branding Has Changed. Those Gap Campaigns Are Pop Culture. They've Been Incredibly Powerful. They Have Had The Kind Of Effect On Culture That A Hit Band Has. Just Look At The Gap's Khaki Swing Ads, Which Were Music Videos. They Had This Tremendous Impact On The Industry - Suddenly Everything Started Looking Like Gap Ads And It Became Difficult To Know Who Was Co-opting Whom And Who Was Creating Culture.

Indeed The Three Policy Pillars Of The Neoliberal Age-privatization Of The Public Sphere, Deregulation Of The Corporate Sector, And The Lowering Of Income And Corporate Taxes, Paid For With Cuts To Public Spending-are Each Incompatible With Many Of The Actions We Must Take To Bring Our Emissions To Safe Levels.

In Pragmatic Terms, Our Challenge Is Less To Save The Earth From Ourselves And More To Save Ourselves From An Earth That, If Pushed Too Far, Has Ample Power To Rock, Burn, And Shake Us Off Completely.