Dick Cheney's "unitary executive theory" made Donald Trump's authoritarianism possible.
So for however much he and his family despise(d) Trump, never forget that it was he who more than anyone else laid the groundwork for Agent Orange’s ongoing authoritarian takeover. And not just back going to the second Bush Administration and the Global War on Terror but further, to Cheney’s full-throated defense of the Reagan administration in the House Intelligence Committee’s minority report on Iran-Contra when he was the ranking member on that committee.
Hell, go even back further, to his time in the Ford administration, as Congress started asserting itself in the wake of Watergate, Cheney consistently argued that in matters of national security and foreign policy, the President has basically unlimited authority. It should be obvious how dangerous this line of reasoning was, and how someone with even less respect for the Constitution and Congress than Cheney would take advantage of it to claim an unprecedented amount of power for himself and his own corrupt interests. That’s the world we are living in now.
The good thing about Cheney living to this point is that he could see what his legacy is: an unrestrained President Donald Trump, a man who has nothing but contempt for the Cheneys, and the Republican Party having excommunicated them, the Bushes, and other fixtures of the Republican old guard in favor of Cult Leader Trump. In a way, it seems only fitting.
Rot in Hell, Darth, and give my regards to Rummy.
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