Conservatives were aghast when liberals such as Jimmy Kimmel joked and spoke so dismissively about the coldblooded murder of conservative icon Charlie Kirk. They asked how a human being could be so cold as to show no empathy for the murder victim or his family, notwithstanding their political views.
Conservatives were totally in the right to lash out against these insensitive dolts. But to be morally consistent, conservatives must speak out when one of their own employs the same type of cruel insensitivity.
That was the case with President Donald Trump, who, rather than showing any empathy at all for Rob Reiner and his wife, who allegedly were slain by their son, he resorted to disparaging the actor/director for his Trump Derangement Syndrome.
As repugnant as Reiner’s political views sometimes were, even he had the empathy to speak out against Charlie Kirk’s killing, noting that murder is never the answer.
Why couldn’t our president have done the same? Donald Trump has a history of failing to meet the moment when a crisis develops in our nation. We saw that during Covid, and we even saw it after the Charlie Kirk assassination. Erika Kirk gave one of the most moving speeches of forgiveness you will ever see. Trump thereafter got on stage and admitted that he could never do the same because he hates his enemies.
Wouldn’t it be nice if — just once — our president acted in a presidential manner during these times that begged out for unity?
President Trump’s ratings are in the low 30s and this is despite the fact that we have a record stock market and that he took out Iran’s nukes, closed the border, brought peace to the Middle East and settled numerous wars around the world.
But a good deal of the negativity associated with him is that people just get worn out by his crude rhetoric. Let’s face it. Donald Trump can often be a very mean person.
A lot of people, including this newspaper, often feel like we have to hold our nose and deal with it because his policies are so much better than the alternative that has been presented by radical, Marxist-oriented Democrats over these last few years.
But we long for a day when we can have a president like Ronald Reagan — someone with commonsense policies coupled with a sense of empathy, a president who can be presidential and a role model. We keep hoping and praying that Donald Trump will one day may meet that moment. Thus far, he’s failed one too many times.