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mikelewis

(4,494 posts)
Tue Mar 25, 2025, 09:32 PM Mar 25

A Flaccid Dick is no Dick at All: The Total Collapse of Dick Cheney

The Man Who Was Feared

A long time ago... a long time before Donald Trump and Vlad the Impaler Putin... there used to be someone people were really afraid of... his name was Dick Cheney.

For a generation, Dick Cheney represented raw, unapologetic American power. He was the vice president who didn’t wait to be asked. The puppet master behind George W. Bush’s throne. The mind behind the Iraq War. The unapologetic voice of torture, black sites, and "enhanced interrogation." He shot his friend in the face and made the friend apologize. That was Cheney: feared, calculated, untouchable.

But fear fades. And power, when not rooted in principle, crumbles.

What we are left with today is not a titan, but a shadow. A man who once shaped nations now trembles before a party he helped mutate. This is the story of Dick Cheney’s collapse—political, moral, intellectual. Not the fade of age. The failure of character.

Part I: The Rise — Vice President as Warlord

Cheney was never supposed to wield that much power. But in the wake of 9/11, while Bush found religion, Cheney found opportunity. He consolidated defense contracts, directed intelligence flows, and embedded corporate interests into military strategy.

He didn’t just influence foreign policy—he privatized it.

Halliburton profited massively from wars he promoted.
The unitary executive theory was normalized under his command.
He treated Congress with contempt and diplomacy as weakness.

To his supporters, he was pragmatic. To history, he was the executive branch’s first war profiteer in a suit.

Part II: The Machinery Fails

The military-industrial complex Cheney nourished did not die. It calcified. It became self-referential, risk-averse, and bloated. Weapons programs ballooned, wars stretched endlessly, and even victories felt like liabilities.

Meanwhile, the system Cheney fed began to forget him.

Boeing collapsed during the 737 MAX disaster.
Lockheed Martin flatlined.
Contractors lost their edge as stock prices stalled.

And then came Trump—the showman Cheney could neither predict nor control.

Part III: Trump Takes the Wheel — and Cheney Buckles

Trump mocked the military. He undermined NATO. He called for martial law. He pulled aid from Ukraine. And Dick Cheney? The man who built a global surveillance apparatus? Said nothing.

The irony couldn’t be louder: the man who invented the playbook for permanent war watched silently as a cartoon strongman torched it.

When Trump insulted the intelligence community, Cheney didn’t defend it. When Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers,” Cheney didn’t object. When Trump pardoned war criminals, Cheney barely cleared his throat.

He once told Senator Leahy to "go f*** yourself" on the Senate floor. Now, he can't even muster a tweet.

Part IV: Liz Stands Alone

Liz Cheney stepped into the arena, facing death threats, exile from her party, and Trump’s wrath. She stood at the center of the January 6th hearings. She named names. She called it a coup.

And her father? The man who once moved aircraft carriers across oceans?

He showed up in a campaign ad. Quiet. Scripted. Safe.

That’s not leadership. That’s legacy laundering.

Part V: The Ghost of a War Machine

Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex. Cheney became its personification. But what Ike never foresaw was that the complex wouldn’t overpower democracy. It would wither, outmaneuvered by populism, entertainment, and apathy.

Cheney isn’t the dark prince anymore. He’s the failed patriarch of a machine that got outsmarted by algorithms, anti-vaxxers, and a man who thinks windmills cause cancer.

Cheney isn’t Trump’s enemy. He’s Trump’s little bitch.

Trump took Ukraine from him. He took the GOP. He gutted the national security establishment. He pissed on the Pentagon, and Cheney held the towel.

Conclusion: The End of the Illusion

Dick Cheney isn’t a villain anymore. Villains act.

He’s a relic. A silent observer of a party he once commanded. A powerless figurehead of a machine that lost its teeth.

He built the war state. And now he watches it crumble under the weight of a carnival strongman with no ideology and infinite contempt.

This isn’t about age. It’s about exposure. Without the smoke and mirrors, Dick Cheney was never the master of anything. Just the last guy holding the leash before the dog turned around and bit.

The warlord didn’t fall. He deflated.

Cheney is done. History will remember him not as feared — but as hollow.

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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A Flaccid Dick is no Dick at All: The Total Collapse of Dick Cheney (Original Post) mikelewis Mar 25 OP
Curio of a bygone era mr715 Mar 25 #1
He started an unneeded war in Iraq and became Botany Mar 25 #2
Cheney was/is as evil as Mango Jebus, but was potentially more dangerous. Cheney knew what he was doing. marble falls Mar 25 #3
Objectively true re: evil mr715 Mar 25 #6
And Dubya is NOWHERE to be found Blue Owl Mar 25 #4
Yeah but even he doesn't know where he is mr715 Mar 25 #5
Before Dump he was number one on my horrible humans list. Now he's down to # 3. Dave Bowman Mar 25 #7
Thought provoking Hekate Mar 25 #8
War criminal still. rickyhall Mar 25 #9
Cheney, trump enid602 Mar 25 #10
I want to see the part where Dick went to prison for war crimes Martin Eden Mar 26 #11

Botany

(74,055 posts)
2. He started an unneeded war in Iraq and became
Tue Mar 25, 2025, 09:37 PM
Mar 25

a billionaire from it. Cost plus no bid contracts
for KBR and Halliburton.

marble falls

(65,168 posts)
3. Cheney was/is as evil as Mango Jebus, but was potentially more dangerous. Cheney knew what he was doing.
Tue Mar 25, 2025, 09:38 PM
Mar 25

mr715

(1,707 posts)
6. Objectively true re: evil
Tue Mar 25, 2025, 09:41 PM
Mar 25

But I don't know about more dangerous. Cheney never managed to raise a cult of 70+ million. He did shoot his friend in the face.

enid602

(9,332 posts)
10. Cheney, trump
Tue Mar 25, 2025, 11:10 PM
Mar 25

Cheney’s heart condition and trump’s advanced age and mental issues have so far deprived the GOP of producing the next Hitler/anti-Christ.

Martin Eden

(14,258 posts)
11. I want to see the part where Dick went to prison for war crimes
Wed Mar 26, 2025, 07:51 AM
Mar 26

In a cell next to his junior partner, Dim Son.

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