Thoughts on Dick Cheney’s Rehabilitation by Democrats

I don’t want to get into an argument about Dick Cheney’s legacy. 

For much of my career, I admired the man as a steely, clear-eyed warrior for Democracy, although, as you can imagine, soured on him long before he became a hero to the left. 

Relitigating the Iraq war right now is not my purpose, and I have no desire to trash a guy whose virtues and faults were outsized. He has passed on, and there will be plenty of time to consider his legacy without trashing the man at the moment he faces his Maker. 

So when I share this Glenn Greenwald tweet, it isn’t to trash Cheney, but rather the liberals who flocked to his side as soon as he started trashing Trump. 

Badge of honor not to be invited at the funeral of one of the 9/11 masterminds:https://t.co/Xd1Nc1sER3

“Trump and Vance not invited to Dick Cheney’s funeral, but all four living former vice presidents attending” pic.twitter.com/bSf3hcS9l6

— Abraham van Helsing (@Abraham02782754) November 20, 2025

For liberals, Dick Cheney was Darth Vader for most of his career, and they didn’t flock to Cheney because he changed his mind about anything or expressed regrets for the very decisions for which they reviled him, or at least claimed to revile him. Cheney remained the same Darth Vader whom they called a minion of Satan; in fact, as far as I can tell the only thing he agreed with them on was Trump. 

Anthony Fauci, Rachel Maddow and James Carville are sitting together at Dick Cheney’s funeral. pic.twitter.com/MOdh99AV0H

— Dylan Wells (@dylanewells) November 20, 2025

That tells you everything you need to know about Democrats’ supposed moral concerns about Dick and Liz Cheney back when they were said to be evil. They didn’t care a whit about war and peace; they trashed them because they found it convenient to do so. The Cheneys went from war criminals to close allies for one reason: political gain. 

📸 What a moment at the Cheney funeral. A light hearted exchange between old political rivals George W. Bush and Al Gore had President @JoeBiden and @DrBiden laughing along.

It felt like a glimpse of the country we used to be, and the country we could still be without the… pic.twitter.com/1DDibdzR6X

— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) November 20, 2025

It’s hard to even know how many Democratic Party leaders are genuinely outraged by Trump, for all the storm and strife they project. I am tempted to believe they genuinely hate him, but only because he has discovered the magic formula for taking away some of their perks and power. He is dismantling their carefully constructed graft machine. 

Former president George W. Bush and a bipartisan mix of Washington veterans are paying tribute to former vice president Dick Cheney today at his funeral in D.C.

Follow our coverage: https://t.co/EwUNuQQBEu pic.twitter.com/9VGXgvdFxZ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 20, 2025

Do they care about anything else? Who knows these days? 

Dick Cheney was a war criminal. Mitt Romney wanted to reenslave blacks. George Bush was a Nazi. Even John McCain was beyond the pale. 

If I told people in 2008 that Dick Cheney would be a hero to Democrats, I would have been involuntarily committed.

But here we are. https://t.co/n8QPdXqtdO

— David Chavous (@DACDAC4DAC) November 4, 2025

Once these people were no longer threats to their power, they became the “good” Republicans who we should all admire because none of them liked Trump, who is as big a danger to their power as he is to the Democrats’. Trump has destroyed the Republican establishment and replaced it with his loyalists and MAGA advocates, and that is unforgivable. 

Kamala Harris based much of her campaign on her alliance with the Cheneys, which would be hilarious but for the fact that it highlights the moral vacuity of the entire Establishment. Mortal enemies united because Trump is a threat to their iron grip they had on the country’s wealth and power. All that talk about “war criminals” and “corruption” turns out to have pure performance. 

Did y’all notice anything interesting about Dick Cheney’s Funeral? It’s been reported that Donald Trump and JD Vance were NOT invited to attend. Yet, all the snakes were invited, Mike Pence included. Just shows who’s in the club and who’s not. pic.twitter.com/yN6P453JnJ

— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) November 20, 2025

As Democrats join Establishment Republicans to give an honorable sendoff to Dick Cheney, God rest his soul, all I can think of is how Cheney’s funeral puts on display how corrupt and vacuous our political elite is. Their ultimate allegiance is to the power structure that elevated them. 

Cheney, for all his many flaws, was a true believer. At least I think so. He believed that he was helping save America from existential threats, and he certainly had his moments during and right after the Cold War and before the 2003 Iraq war. No man’s motives are entirely pure, but my sense was that he followed his conscience most of the time. 

Not so with those honoring him today, for the most part. All those people who flocked to Cheney to get that anti-Trump quote never cared about anything but power, which is why they stopped on a dime and reversed course when Trump emerged. 

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