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| Sleeping with the enemy |
On January 21 in the year of our Lord 2012, after having concluded that our mattress had reached the lowest dip in the biorythm of its life, the Goat and I concluded a harrowing shopping excursion with the purchase of the unit pictured above (
more here).
This was the first new mattress purchase I ever made. Hence, when the set I wanted clocked in at nearly $1,800, I did not care.
"I do not care," I told the Goat as we lay upon the Trumpster's mattress in our winter coats staring at the ceiling in the predictable showroom.
That the mattress we liked best was under the Trump brand was more or less a joke. Who cared? We liked the unit, which was, after all, a Serta - one of those brands we more or less trust.
Here in the year of our Lord 2016, however, a few things have changed. We are no longer in the market for a new bed, but if we were, I daresay the Trump name would deter the purchase. Four years ago, the Donald was a loud-mouthed boor. Today, he's an egomaniac dangerously stoking the flames of fear and bigotry in order to prolong his perverse intoxication. I offered this observation to the Goat during our constitutional yesterday morning.
"No way I would shell out $1,800 for anything with a Trump label on it now," I said.
"So what?" countered the Goat. "His supporters will."
I begged to differ, saying that the
average Trump supporter does not look one hell of a lot like the people who have historically supported the luxe Trump brand. Try a swank $420 per night
hotel room or a $600,000
NYC one-bedroom condo.
Who knows? Maybe the rich people won't care if their $380
Aquanox Signature Spa Experience is associated with the Trumpster. That said, there's always someone happy to take your $380 who
does not publicly call women fat and ugly and
does not believe you should be barred from entering the country based on your religion.
But if that same rich person opts to purchase a mattress much like my own, she or he will discover that Serta has since stopped selling mattresses under the Trump name on account of his "
disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants."
That's just one. Earlier this month, Politico offered up a
telling article on how the Trumpster's luxury brand is nosediving amid the Donald's atrocious rhetoric.
"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."
While I suppose that may indeed depend on the demographics of the victim, Mr. Trump, it may nonetheless be true. The question is, in the event you wake on January 20, 2017 and find you are not preparing for the inaugural pomp and circumstance, who will be bellying up to support the Trump brand? Your post-political life may no longer include the well-heeled. You'll be left with the angry white middle class to whom you've pandered, which may or may not be able to afford your diamond-encrusted lifestyle.
As my dearly beloved pointed out to me, Trump has reinvented himself time and time again. Perhaps he will do so in the aftermath of his political career as the
Politico article points out:
"Then again, (Trump) could move into the part of the consumer market where
no real damage has been done. Perhaps a Trump brand of smokes, or maybe
canned meat?"
So who's up for a Trumped Potted Meat sammie and a nice cold can of The Donald's Pink Catawba?
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