The Cool Factor of the Left

Most won't willingly walk away from its glow

Ok you and I may not think the left is cool. But hear me out . . .

I have spoken with three people in the last few weeks who told me something akin to the following: upon revealing my conservative leanings/questioning of the left publicly, friends pulled me aside to say — you’re not going to get invited to the fun stuff anymore.

I kid you not. This is the currency. Cool parties. It’s a measure of one’s worth in a topsy turvy Instagram world.

They aren’t wrong though. You may not be surprised by this, but I don’t get invited to the cool kid parties anymore! And while I don’t miss that (my introverted nature made it a challenge that I had to psyche myself up for every time), I get missing it. I do.

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When I took over as the CMO of Levi’s in 2013, our mission was to put Levi’s back at the center of culture. We’d become boring, staid, dad jeans and not in a cool way. (This was before the “dad shoe” rose to popularity, and along with it — quickly following — the dad jean and mom jean. I digress.)

No one talked about us. We had zero cool factor. The brand was lame.

The brand had been at its best when it was at the center of the cultural conversation. When people at Woodstock wore Levi’s or nothing at all. When the Berlin Wall came down, men stood atop it in their Levi’s. Not product placement (duh) but a statement about the brand — FREEDOM! RUGGED INDIVIDUALITY! — nonetheless. Levi’s were the backdrop of significant cultural happenings.

Into the 80s and early 90s, Levi’s maintained its cultural currency — sponsorship of Team USA at the 1984 Olympics when everyone watched the Olympics was big!

And then . . . the brand didn’t have cultural currency anymore. No one talked about it. The brand fell off the cool cliff.

From about 1999-2012 Levi’s was lame. I was there. I tried to revive it. I was junior and not in charge and my ideas weren’t exactly top of anyone’s list. Lots of people came in and tried to make it too cool too fast, and it just read as trying too hard. You have to build to it after you’ve lost it. Gain it back inch by inch.

Anyway, that was my charge when I did get the big job. And we did it. (Note: a lot of the old crowd on the marketing team were big mad when I got the job because I wasn’t cool enough. They thought — and told me to my face — I wasn’t cool therefore I wouldn’t have a clue about making the brand cool. They were wrong.)

By 2016, we had the coolest must-get-an-invite-to party at Coachella — it was called Neon Carnival and it as an invite-only, celebrity-loved event featuring carnival rides and games — after hours. Which means 2am-6am. We also had the best side show party — two full days of DJ’s and super models and customizing jeans, again invite only, for the cool kids to rest and prepare for the night of Coachella shows ahead. Snoop was our DJ (frequently) and it was a who’s who of guests. It’s not the parties per se that made the brand cool again. It’s the fact that we got billions of impressions from the famous people in attendance posting about the parties live from the events. That’s what made Levi’s cool again.

During this time, we pursued music as our primary association to popular culture. I always said: We didn’t choose music, music chose us. Every artist with an original voice has chosen to wear Levi’s on stage. We’re part of their story.

Elvis, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Kurt Cobain, Beyonce and more. The list goes on. Forever.

We worked with Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Tyler the Creator, Chance the Rapper, Lauryn Hill, Denzel Curry, Khalid and more — the list goes on and on and on. I can’t even think of them all. I don’t remember all of their names at this point.

And I often sat down privately, 1:1, with these folks, to chart the deal we would make. It can get kind of heady if you’re prone to deriving your sense of self-worth from who you associate with. I do not. But I get it.

The Levi’s brand continues that approach today — their Super Bowl ad this year featured Grammy-winning rapper Doechii, K-pop superstar Rosé of Blackpink and musician/DJ Questlove. You might say who the f is Rosé but her 84.4 million followers on Instagram know full well who she is. In the realm of popular culture, she’s a big deal.

You can say who cares, who are they?? but they are hyper-relevant in youth culture and certainly qualify as “cool.”

And you can bet that whoever the CMO at Levi’s is right now gets invited to the fun parties.

I have attended the MTV Music Awards (when that was a thing), the Grammy’s, multiple Super Bowls, multiple Coachellas and hosted private concerts with Chance the Rapper and Lauryn Hill for a few hundred people. I was named one of the most powerful people in music and fashion. I was cool.

Now I get invited to speak at libertarian conferences where the average age just might be 72 and half the attendees are dozing in their folding chairs. I jest. But not really.

And I love it, don’t get me wrong. But you see my point, yes?

The allure is just too strong for most to cast it aside. Not for me, clearly. I cast it aside!

But for the vast majority who enjoy the spoils of being part of the cool economy . . . they will never willingly give it up. It will need to be wrested from their cold dead hands.

This past December, Nicky Minaj made a surprise appearance at Turning Point USA’s America Fest. She was interviewed by Erika Kirk. The crowd went crazy. Minaj is the highest earning and most popular female rapper of all time.

I will tell you this right now: Minaj is never going to get an invite to perform at Coachella again. She outed herself as both a Christian and a conservative.

She has been nominated for 12 Grammy’s and never won one. And she ain’t gettin’ one now.

She doesn’t care. But I will tell you this right now as well: most people do.

They do not have the courage to withstand not getting invited to the cool parties. So they keep their views under wraps.

Look at what just happened to Chicago Bulls basketball player Jaden Ivey: the Bulls fired the 24-year-old guard following comments he made on Instagram Live criticizing the NBA’s support for Pride Month, saying the league was celebrating “unrighteousness.” You can get arrested for drugs, beat your girlfriend, drive drunk but saying you aren’t on board with Pride Month celebrations within the NBA . . . that’s a bridge too far.

I don’t even agree with Ivey per se. Though I agree the players shouldn’t be forced to celebrate something they don’t believe in. My point is this: he said what he thinks as a Christian and got himself fired.

Tiger Woods rolls his car while under the influence multiple times, is a known philanderer, cheated on his wife and retains icon status. Believe me, this latest car roll under the influence of oxy isn’t getting the man cancelled. A love of Jesus and an appearance at a Turning Point USA conference — that would do it!

Most cannot withstand this opprobrium. The ousting. The firings. The just not getting to go to the cool stuff anymore.

And so what you have is this:

The lefties convey their views full-throatedly.

Some are quiet and say nothing and we’re left to assume they might not be all in on the far left’s platform but they haven’t said anything violative so they get to stay. They get Sports Illustrated covers and Nike contracts and Met Gala invites.

But anyone who says anything that can be perceived as right of center is shown the door.

And this creates the illusion of consensus for far left views in mainstream popular culture.

And it creates incentives to keep your mouth shut if you want to have a career and win awards and get invited to all the cool happenings. And sorry, TP USA Am Fest with all of it’s 30,000 attendees doesn’t compare to playing the mainstage at Coachella for a crowd of 125,000. It just doesn’t. Not in the artist’s or the mass public’s mind.

It doesn’t compare to playing the Super Bowl half time show — which (this last time) garnered 135M views live and over 4B over the next 24 hours.

The Super Bowl half time show has often been programmed as a mash-up of styles. One might wonder why country superstar Morgan Wallen wasn’t invited to play with Bad Bunny this year? Two of the highest ranking Spotify artists. Vastly different styles, equally popular. Wallen dominates in the United States, Bad Bunny is a global super star. In 2026, they were the only two artists in history to simultaneously chart at least 40 songs on the U.S. Spotify chart.

Nope. No Wallen. Just Bunny. And I’m willing to wager Wallen will never get that invite. Despite the fact that country stars have played the half-time show before (Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, The Judds, Shania Twain, Kid Rock, etc) — it was a different time. Anyone assumed to be a conservative would not get an invite now.

And most people don’t want to not get that invite. Whether it is owning the stage at the Super Bowl half time show, or just a ticket to an on-site Super Bowl party (as a corporate exec, these are plentiful), or just the dinner party in your own neighborhood.

Cool still rules the day. It’s fun, it pays well, it confers status. And the vast majority of people with any proximity to it aren’t giving it up.