While reading Trump’s disgusting tweet about the brutal murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, I thought of a famous quote denouncing McCarthyism:

“Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

This dramatic moment in a televised Senate Hearing marked the end of McCarthyism—a movement in the 1950s marked by false, groundless assertions that someone was a communist.

I hope that there is similar disgust at Trump after his tweet about the death of Rob Reiner—a political foe of Trump and MAGA who was a beloved comedian from All in the Family and a legendary director of iconic movies such as When Harry Met Sally . . ., The Princess Bride, and A Few Good Men.

In case you haven’t read Trump’s tweet, here is the full quote:

A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. 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!

These are false, disgusting false, groundless assertions about someone who was just murdered!

And so, I ask Trump again:

Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

There is a notoriously unethical person who links McCarthyism with Trump: ROY COHN.

He was Chief Counsel for Senator McCarthy during the Senate Hearings that generatedthe quote contained in this blog. He was a mentor and lawyer for young Donald Trump.

Cohn taught Trump the litigation strategies and tactics that we’ve seen Trump display again and again in his sexual harassment of women, in his illegal and unethical business practices, and as President: lie, deny, delay.

Near the end of his life in 1986, Cohn was disbarred for trying to defraud a wealthy client by pressuring the client to name Cohn as his heir.

Despite Cohn being such an unethical, cruel man, Trump and Cohn were close. Reportedly, Trump was the last person to talk on the phone with Cohn.

In behavior that foreshadowed Trump’s misleading us about his physical and mental health, Cohn denied vehemently that he was HIV-positive until the day he died from AIDs!

Unfortunately, by being close to Cohn, Trump became like him: a notoriously unethical, cruel man. Trump did not heed this wisdom from the first psalm:

[Do] not walk in step with the wicked

     or stand in the way that sinners take . . . .

For . . . the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

(Psalm 1:1-6)

And if you think Trump will remain rich and powerful by being cruel and dishonest, and by having no sense of decency, think again!

Remember the wisdom of Psalm 73:

I envied the arrogant

   when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They have no struggles . . . .

This is what the wicked are like—

     always free of care,they go on amassing wealth. . . . .

They scoff, and speak with malice;

     with arrogance they threaten oppression.

When I tried to understand all this,

It troubled me greatly

till I entered the sanctuary of God;

then I understood their final destiny.

 

Surely you place them on slippery ground;

you cast them down to ruin.

How suddenly they are destroyed,

     completely swept away by terrors!

(Psalm 73:3-5,8,12,16-19).

So shall it always be. Why?

Because we reap what we sow. (Galatians 6:7).

Because, as Jesus warned, if we do not put his words in the Sermon on the Mount into practice, our lives and our civilization will fall down with a great crash when the rains and winds of life beat upon us. (Matthew 7:24-27).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you believe you have a sense of decency? Why? Why not?

Do you believe Trump has a sense of decency? Why? Why not?

READ MORE

For related thoughts, please read “Jezebel and Ahab: Greed, Lies and Violence” and “Pilate Bows to the Political Pressure To Crucify Jesus”.