I awake this morning to the news that Dick Cheney has passed away. Once one of the most powerful figures in the Republican Party and the nation, he was one of the last great servants of the people. Never great with the media, he became the perpetual bridesmaid, serving in high government office with great performance and distinction, culminating in the Vice- Presidency during the Bush 43 administration. By virtue of his great competence, he was constantly fodder for humorists and satirists, some who took their job far too seriously. This made him an easy target for Donald Trump, with whom he had many disagreements. And so at a time when age and infirmity would have relegated him to the political sidelines, he found himself out of the game altogether – which is shameful.
I never had the honor of meeting V.P. Cheney, but among politicians on his level that I have never met he is on the short list of ones I truly wish I had. Joel Kotkin recently released a City Journal piece about mayors that I think deeply illustrates Dick Cheney, without trying to do so. Kotkin’s piece opens:
Rick Cole has spent several decades running cities, both as an elected official and as a planner. He has worked in suburban Azusa, California, and progressive-dominated Santa Monica and currently sits on the Pasadena City Council. Yet as he looks out at the urban future, he feels despair—most particularly, about the city of Los Angeles, where he recently departed as deputy mayor and chief deputy controller.
“The progressives are not focused on governance,” he suggested over sushi in Little Tokyo, a stone’s throw from City Hall. “They prefer virtue-signaling to running a city.” Cole’s is not the complaint of a conservative but someone who identifies as “a pragmatic progressive,” even a “sewer socialist.” The problem, he says, is that today’s progressives lack a “results-oriented approach” that actually helps residents.
I think the point being made there can, and should, be generalized a bit. In this media saturated age, media skill (“prefer virtue signaling”) has become the predominant skill for a many politicians over actually governing effectively (“Results oriented approach.”) Our changing world and technology has made media more and more a part of the job, but way too many in the political arena have viewed it as the job, not just a portion of it and the media obsessed public can’t always tell the difference.
By contrast, Dick Cheney came to any office he held to do a job – and do it well. The media perceived this as disdain and those in government more due to media skill than capability perceived it as shaming. The pieces on Cheney I have read this morning have all been tempered, acknowledging his great power, but quick to mention his failures and faults.
No one is perfect, but few have embodied the role of public servant we well as Dick Cheney. In his death he deserves far more unqualified praise than he will receive.
Well done Dick Cheney – good and faithful servant.
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