The murders of Rob Reiner and his wife — allegedly by their son, Nick — were horrific enough. But because the elder Reiner was, in rallies and interviews and on social media, a spittle-flecked progressive who said vile things about his opponents, including the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it was inevitable that President Donald Trump’s reaction would fail to serve as a stellar example of gracefully acknowledging the death of a
public figure.
After calling the fatal knife attack a “sad thing” but before exclaiming “May Rob and Michele rest in peace,” Trump made the incident about himself.
The butchery, he asserted, “reportedly” was the result of “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.” Trump referred to Reiner’s “raging obsession” and “paranoia” that reached “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.”
More extreme than Rob Reiner’s derangement may be Trump’s own.
But the actor and director, in his heyday, also demonstrated some difficulty assessing his public persona honestly. Reiner never seemed to realize that he became the “Meathead” he played (maybe with only inadvertent satire) on All in the Family in the 1970s.
Some folks find it hard to condemn Trump for being petty and political upon Reiner’s death when that seemed to be precisely what Reiner was upon, say, Rush Limbaugh’s.
Both Reiner and Trump inhabit the “loudmouth” camp of public rhetoric, using strong condemnatory language and a reliance on over-statement when railing against their opponents. At death, do loudmouths deserve less honor?
The acceleration of history being what it is, perhaps, “too soon” no longer sticks as a useful censure when it comes to gallows humor and double-murder indecency.
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8 replies on “Of Loudmouths and Silence”
The second aspect of Trump’s response is that he imputed Reiner’s death to Reiner’s hateful attitude towards Trump.
Perhaps Trump presumed that a fanatical supporter had assassinated Reiner, and wanted to blame Reiner as provoking the assassination.
But it seems to me that Trump has adopted a world-view in which, whenever bad things happen to his opponents, these bad things happen exactly because they are his opponents. If I am correct, then Trump has come to view himself as anointed, which view makes him rather more dangerous than might otherwise be thought.
Given that Rob Reiner’s personal attack on Rush Limbaugh focussed on Limbaugh’s supposedly lying about anthropogenic global climate change, Reiner would have been placed in an especially awkward position had he lived as long as did his father Carl. The AGCC narrative has far less than two more decades to run before it is abandoned by those credentialled as scientists as is reduced to the social margins.
Some folks find it hard to condemn Trump for being petty and political upon Reiner’s death when that seemed to be precisely what Reiner was upon, say, Rush Limbaugh’s.
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I did not find it hard to condemn Trump for his remarks. My response is — “be better”.
Yes, Reiner could be caustic, especially to Trump. But the man and his wife were brutally murdered. If you have a problem with Reiner’s politics, be better than the behavior you dislike.
Do any of you realize how crazed and violent a person needs to be to kill their parents with a knife. This ain’t Hollywood, where you stab them once and they fall down dead. This is pure murderous rage — stabbing and slicing over and over. Blood spattering on the killer and the walls and ceiling. The blade slicing open flesh, cutting through tendons and muscles and puncturing vital organs. Their last conscious moments are filled with unbelievable pain until the blood stops reaching their brain and the become unconscious.
You ask: “At death, do loudmouths deserve less honor?” Ask instead how parents can create that kind of crazed hatred in their son. Ask instead if what President Trump said is true about TDS. Ask why when people speak the truth they can lose their loves. Ask when political opponents became the enemy.
There is a huge difference between an individual’s speech and that of the deranged president of the United States.
The president of the United States, aka Joe Biden, said this in 2022:
Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
He then went on to say: But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.
Next: And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people.
Pam, do you approve of bombast such as this from a leader who sought to put his political opponents out of action? Biden never sought to bring the country together. Trump isn’t a saint. So he has trouble turning the other cheek. I didn’t like what Trump said, either. But he wasn’t calling for people to be jailed or killed for their political differences.
1) Somebody vilifies you almost daily for eight solid years.
2) That person dies
3a) If you’re a politician, you lie and say nice things about him (and everybody knows you’re lying).
3b) If you’re Trump you say precisely what you feel, and leftists excoriate you for telling the truth.
Trump doesn’t know what truth is! He is a serial LIAR.
Pam, a lie is a falsehood presented in an attempt to deceive, by someone who knows it to be false.* A person who didn’t know what truth were would also not know what falsehood were, and thus would be incapable of lying.
At least be coherent in your ranting.
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* Ordinary fiction is known by its author to be false, but the reader is not expected to take such fiction as true, and hence it is not a lie.