Rob Reiner Was a Mensch. In Death, He Showed Us Trump’s a Schmuck |
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In death, Rob Reiner, an accomplished actor and filmmaker and a passionate progressive advocate, landed one last blow on Donald Trump and showed us how small and indecent a man the president is.
Reiner was a star on many fronts. He was a comedy pioneer, writing with Steve Martin for the Smothers Brothers in the 1960s. He played a pivotal role in one of the most revolutionary television shows in the medium, All in the Family. He was one of the most successful directors in the history of Hollywood (This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, and many more). His acting career ranged from sitcoms (That Girl) to serious films (The Wolf of Wall Street), with a wonderful recent stint on The Bear. His production company gave us The Shawshank Redemption and Seinfeld.
And Reiner was much more than your average LA liberal. He did the heavy lifting of leading campaigns—one overturned a ban on same-sex marriage in California, another created a program of early childhood development services in the state funded by a tax on tobacco products.
Above all, Rob was a mensch. We were friends. He was a big shot who did not act like a big shot. The son of Carl Reiner, he was a prince in Jewish comedy royalty. Yet online—and he was much online—he acted as if he were just another netizen concerned with the world. I’ll forever treasure our long and leisurely lunches at his favorite Italian restaurant where the conversation easily shifted from great comic bits to US history to California politics to tales of his father and his father’s pals (Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Sid Caesar) to music and, inevitably in the past 10 years, to Donald Trump.
It was no secret that Rob despised Trump. He enthusiastically shared his unadulterated views........