I was almost desperately wanting to post something today that wasn’t about the most disreputable, dismal, destructive, disruptive, delusional politician of my long lifetime. And then he did something so sleazy that the only relief I can have is the steam pouring out of my fingers as they type these letters.
Actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife were stabbed to death in their home last week and our President could not wait to post a typically utterly distasteful and disgraceful rant about it on his social media page.
There is no class, no dignity to this man—especially after some graceful things Reiner said about the assassination of one of the president’s most loyal and most-recognized supporters.
Reiner was an unabashed active liberal but he was capable of respecting those starkly different from him in numerous ways. When Charlie Kirk was murdered, Reiner told talk show host Piers Morgan who asked him how he felt about the killing, “Absolute horror and I unfortunately saw the video of it. It’s beyond belief what happened to him. That should never happen to anybody. I don’t care what your political beliefs are. That’s not acceptable. That’s not a solution so solving problems.”
“And I felt like what his wife said at the service at the memorial they had, was exactly right. I’m Jewish but I believe in the teachings of Jesus and I believe in ‘do unto others’ and I believe in forgiveness and what she said, to me, was beautiful. She forgave his assassin. And I think that is admirable.”
Contrast that with this disgraceful attack from someone who enjoyed being idolized by Charlie Kirk:
Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!
To their credit, a significant number of Republicans have repudiated Trump’s comments, but not Trump influencer Laura Loomer, who thinks Trump is spot on, commenting, “Rob Reiner had a level of TDS that likely exuded a level of craziness around those he spent time with. Many people who have crazy kids have psychiatric issues themselves.”
Reiner’s son, who is reported to have mental health issues, is considered the suspect in the killings, prompting Loomer to say he’s typical of children of celebrities who often become “total dead beat losers because many were raised to have no accountability by parents who subscribe to hardcore liberalism. Trump is right. Reiner himself sounded insane when he would speak. Imagine how crazy his own kid was… on drugs. We have a mental health crisis in America.”
Good Lord!
Rob Reiner, no matter how his liberality might be interpreted, is far more of a man than a president who could not resist immediately spitting venom on his life. The only person who truly suffers from TDS is Donald J. Trump, a political Typhoid Mary who has infected tens of thousands of others with help from vocal manure-spreaders such as Loomer.
I want to live long enough to read Trump’s obituary. Whatever good he does will be buried under descriptions of his lack of character and lack of empathy, his arrogance and his narrowness.
Chilon of Sparta, one of ancient Greece’s Sages, said about 600 BC, “Of the dead man, do not speak ill.” I doubt that Trump knows about Greek philosophers or Roman stoics but I suspect the tone of his comments about Rob Reiner will lead many other to violate Chilon’s advice with Trump’s own demise.
He wants only praise when that time comes—and afterward. Surely he knows or fears it’s not going to happen. But he still believes he can bully his way to some kind of political immortality—by repeatedly displaying political immorality.
Thankfully, most of us want to be remembered as being better people than he is. And we will be.