Many liberal minded Americans like me keep asking ourselves how we ended up with a largely racist, crude, anti-intellectual, anti-science, self-centered, amoral, disconnected from nature, and largely materialistic President. But then when I look at the adjectives, I can’t help thinking that in many ways they do describe a dominant part of American culture. So much of our moral focus of the past (whatever there was of it) seems to have been submerged beneath the common culture of America today. America today (America Today!) is as much a brand as a real common denominator. We have learned to accept the demands of the industrial economy, which include being ready to relocate in many cases, as our job demands. It also demands we focus much of our lives on work and put our interests, our hearts, our families, our dreams at some lesser, and often subconscious level. We’ll get back to it when we have time. And the moral side of things seems to be a simplistic read of the Judeo-Christian 10 commandments (without much personal buy-in), or just a relative sense of what is acceptable to our peers. We, as individual members of this society don’t come up against great moral questions often, or simply dismiss them because they aren’t much fun. But in any case, work takes a lot of our time and energy, and beyond that we’re just looking to enjoy life and maybe take care of a few day to day family level obligations.

This may not seem like a very fair analysis of all America, but this easy-going, not too serious approach is part of the America Today! brand. We can win with this brand, as long as we have some money to spend along the way. But for some people, especially older white people, the payoff at the end doesn’t really pay. You put in the time and effort, but in the end, you don’t win the prize. For white men, who were raised to expect more, that failure to achieve feels like a big betrayal, and sometimes is a really difficult problem. I think that is a part of why our President is who he is, but I think the America Today! brand also helped create the moral failure that our President is. Donald Trump is a product of wealth and the expectation to make money doing business with the money he inherited. Life seems to have required little of him except to at least look like a winner enough to be able to sell it as a brand. So he focuses his wasted life on consuming conspicuously and living the trashy version of what wealth can buy you in your life, from trophy wife to gold-plated toilets. This is the ugliest version of the America Today! brand, but that doesn’t seem to occur to Trump or his followers, though some do express a hint of disappointment at times.

The Trump brand in the end is a poor substitute for a basis for living. And if we live mostly with the wider America Today! brand, we aren’t doing a lot better. The Trump family seems to embrace the rich lifestyle, the expensive, branded clothes and accessories, plus a lack of knowledge, a lack of experience, and a lack of clear emotional or moral compass. They sell themselves as superficial, and they aren’t doing a lot to counteract the other image baggage that might come with that. Little Don Jr. enjoys killing animals, from threatened species in Africa, to little prairie dogs in the heartland. Big Donald turned his nose up at the more private, country setting of Camp David for his Palm Beach, conspicuous consumption, luxury resort setting. He doesn’t read, but he watches TV, especially Fox News. He prefers the stunted communication style of Twitter. The Trumps and Co. could be hanging out with practically anyone in our society, but they choose the wealthiest of the wealthy, and especially the ones who feel that gives them priority over other people. They also associate commonly with right-wing extremists and racists. Trump’s chosen cabinet features mutliple people from Wall Street Investment firms like Goldman Sachs, and others who lack any experience relevant to what they need to do — in critcally important roles, like Secretary of State, or Secretary of Education, or head of the EPA. As a group they lack substance and even basic historical knowlege. The America Today! brand doesn’t have anything to say against the Trump family values as we see them, and maybe it is unfair to judge them all based on what we see in the media, but the values we see are also what they are selling to us, literally.

So is Trump and Co. the appropriate match for America, today? If they lack moral clarity and and care little for anything beyond money, is that really so unamerican? Actually, yes. I think. The maddening reality for many of us liberal and (hopefully) more morally focused Americans is that Donald Trump lost by a significant margin the popular vote. It is disappointing that someone like him, whose entry into politics was baiting Obama over his birth certificate, should get as many votes as he did. And he won in many of the heartland and Southern states. But overall, America, despite its frothy America Today! brand, didn’t vote for the Trump brand. We just got stuck with it. because of the undemocratic electoral college. Why we got stuck with a majority of Republicans in Congress is another, sadder question. Maybe it has to do with the concept of being a winner, a clear part of the America Today! brand, but I think it has as much to do with the lack of clear, progressive focus among the Democrats. It’s a question that will require much reflection, but hopefully someone comes up with some good answers soon! Maybe we could also start working on reworking the America Today! brand — to a newer, better brand. America Tomorrow!?