Early in the 2016 primary season, one of Curmie’s Facebook
friends asked for a two-word description of Donald Trump. Curmie went with “xenophobic buffoon.” That’s still a rather apt description, but so
many other possibilities present themselves: narcissist, liar, grifter, authoritarian,
megalomaniac, asshole, psychotic.
This last is the most troubling of the lot because at one level
it is not an indictment of Trump’s character.
There is, after all, the possibility that he is sufficiently lacking in
mental acuity that he really believes that prices are going down by 1500%, that
the US is now more respected internationally, that he’s stopped all those
wars. If so, we should pity him rather
than scorn him. And it’s likely that the
sycophants in his inner circle would never attempt to bring him around to the reality
of his diminished capacity, as Joe Biden’s top advisors eventually (albeit very belatedly)
did.
The tweet (or whatever they’re called on the ironically named
Truth Social) about the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner is particularly
problematic, even more so than the usual braggadocio, as there is literally
nothing to be gained by being a colossal dickhead. Of course, nothing makes Trump happier than
being cruel for its own sake towards anyone unlike him: not rich and powerful, not
venal, not conservative, not white, not male, not pseudo-Christian… Rob Reiner was, of course, several but apparently not enough of those things.
Remember when that guy who thought a few deaths were a
reasonable price to pay for the Second Amendment was shot and killed? Even pointing out that irony was enough to
get someone fired. Other people whose
keening was deemed insufficient were fired or even arrested. By the way, Curmie’s challenge remains: show
me a single prominent Democratic politician or pundit who actually “celebrated”
Charlie Kirk’s death (as opposed to not mourning loudly or publicly enough) in the
immediate aftermath. (Curmie has seen a
couple of bloggers who could be said to have done so after Trump obnoxious and
yes, celebratory, comments this week.)
OK, Gentle Reader, you can see 47’s missive at the top of
the page. We’re left with questions, and
whatever the answers to those questions are, they’re troubling.
Does Trump honestly believe that the Reiners’ deaths were
caused by “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” (sorry about the all-caps… just trying
to be accurate in the quotation) that they precipitated their own deaths by
making people angry because of their politics (the way Charlie Kirk did,
perhaps)? If the answer is “no,” then
Trump is just lying again. This is, of
course, fully expected, as the man seems incapable of stringing together three
sentences without an obvious prevarication slipping in somewhere. And making the story about himself is
standard Trump.
But if the answer is “yes,” that for once he’s telling the
truth as he sees it, then we open up a different set of questions. There are only two possibilities: either he
believes that disagreeing with him politically invites retribution from God or
the Fates or whoever, or there’s a human element. Trump is certainly hubristic enough to believe
the former, but even the most sympathetic observer (or at least one with an IQ
above room temperature) would have to consider that belief to be evidence of full-fledged
wackadoodledom.
If, however, Trump is suggesting that one of his MAGA
minions took it upon himself to avenge Dear Leader’s honor by killing his
detractors, then he is confessing both that his hateful words lead to
actual violence and that, as has been noted many times by people who have
actually studied this stuff, political violence comes more often from the right
than the left. Or is he hinting that
he ordered the hit? (No, Curmie isn’t
suggesting that as a serious possibility, but it makes at least as much sense
as anything spewed forth by the First Felon.)
Of course, it is becoming increasingly clear that the attack
on the Reiners had nothing whatsoever to do with Donald Trump, and that narcissism
surpassed even vulgarity and cruelty as his defining characteristic for at
least a moment. His screed bears
literally no relationship to reality, and even prominent Republicans are appalled. Plus, of course, hewing to
his standard practice of never admitting a mistake, he doubled down on his inane ramblings.
It is, of course, troubling that Curmie finds it worthy of mention
that “even” Republicans criticized that vicious post. The GOP has been deafening in their silence
about similar transgressions in the past.
Perhaps the fact that people of all political perspectives like “This Is
Spinal Tap” or “The Princess Bride” (to name but two of Reiner’s several
beloved films) is enough to awaken (not to say “made Woke”) these pols’ ethics?
What is certain is that not merely is the person who wrote that missive unfit for the Presidency, he’s batshit crazy. Curmie isn’t sure whether to suggest the correct response is yet another impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment.
¿Por qué no los dos?
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