The anti-Trump petition organizer emailed me (and about 600, 000 people) this morning to let us know that Macy’s is sticking by its gun and will not yet dump Trump.

Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren emailed me this morning. He acknowledged our efforts, which means we got Macy’s attention. But, his response was disappointing. Macy’s and Mr. Lundgren dismissed the efforts so far. They seem to be under the false impression that this is all about their latest TV commercial.

In the ad, Trump apparently asks Santa Claus if he can prove that he’s Santa Claus. Funny.

(Lundgren, by the way, is a Republican who contributed money to Mitt Romney.)

Meanwhile, Alexandra Petri writes cleverly in the Washington Post on the issue:

I take issue with [the petition organizer’s] assertion that “Donald Trump does not represent the magic of Macy’s.”

When we think of Macy’s, most of us think of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, when dozens of giant balloons, inflated to cartoonish proportions, dangle over the streets of New York City to the alarm of small children.

And I defy you to find any phrase that more perfectly describes Donald Trump than “a giant balloon, inflated to cartoonish proportions, who dangles over the streets of New York City to the alarm of small children.”

Pretty smart.

I think we’re seeing something quite interesting here, from a cultural perspective: the moment where a demagogue goes too far and loses popular support permanently. You might call it the “have you no decency” moment. It’s Joe McCarthy waving a “list”; it’s Rush Limbaugh calling a woman a slut because she believes that birth control should be covered by insurance; it’s Father Coughlin, Joseph Kennedy…and Donald Trump.

The petition may or may not succeed at causing Macy’s to disassociate itself from Trump. But it’s already won. Trump will fizzle and spark for the rest of his life. But he is slowly dying of self-inflicted wounds.