The Legacy of Dick Cheney

The former vice president passed away on Monday at the age of 84. The White House honored his memory by lowering flags to half-mast, though it refrained from the customary statements extolling his achievements.

Serving under George W. Bush for eight years, Cheney was one of the most influential and polarizing vice presidents in American history. Critics have long blamed him for pushing the U.S. into the Iraq War under false pretenses, yet his vocal opposition to Trump appears to offer him a measure of redemption.

However, Cheney’s defining legacy may be the expansion of powers for a position he never held: the presidency. Using the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as a pretext, he asserted a robust executive authority that Trump would later amplify to challenge the system of checks and balances.

A Direct Line to Trumpism

Commentators link various policies from the Bush-Cheney era—such as preemptive war, warrantless surveillance, and the establishment of legal categories like “enemy combatant”—to Trump’s administration’s aggressive actions against immigrants and political foes.

“Dick Cheney is the godfather of the Trump presidency,” noted Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “Trump is unchained because Cheney fought for decades against the limitations established after Vietnam and Watergate, prioritizing action over adherence to constitutional rules.”

The Evolution of Presidential Power

The debate over the balance of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches did not originate with Cheney. Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s 1973 book, The Imperial Presidency, argued that the executive branch began to resemble a monarchy, often acting without Congressional consent.

In the 1980s, young conservatives asserted that the presidency had become weakened, leading to a 1989 American Enterprise Institute publication titled The Fettered Presidency, which advocated restoring what they considered constitutionally appropriate powers.

Cheney, shaped by his experiences as a young chief of staff during the Ford administration, believed that Congress had overcorrected in response to the abuses of the Nixon administration, weakening the presidency at a critical time.

The Unitary Executive Theory

Cheney saw legislative constraints like the War Powers Act of 1973 as impediments to effective governance, particularly regarding national security. In a 2005 interview, he decried what he viewed as erosion in presidential authority, asserting that such limitations made governance nearly impossible.

His ideas culminated in the “unitary executive theory,” advocating for total presidential control over the executive branch, effectively reducing the independence of numerous federal entities.

Trump’s Embrace of Executive Overreach

As vice president, Cheney was dubbed “Darth Vader.” The terror attacks on September 11 created a political atmosphere where extraordinary measures were deemed necessary, allowing Cheney to broaden executive power under the guise of national security.

He fervently supported the USA PATRIOT Act, enacted shortly after 9/11, which granted sweeping surveillance powers to the government. His advocacy for warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists in the U.S. raised significant legal concerns.

Recent actions from the Trump administration, such as military interventions against alleged drug traffickers, echo Cheney’s past justifications for extending governmental power under national security pretenses. The Trump administration claims that it is engaged in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, designating them as unlawful combatants.

The Legal and Ethical Implications

Cheney’s legacy also includes notorious legal memorandums proposing that enhanced interrogation techniques could be acceptable under a broad interpretation of presidential powers during the so-called “war on terror.” Critics like Jeremy Varon assert that these propositions have paved the way for misuses of power in later administrations.

Cheney’s approach has elicited criticism from various quarters, including his daughter, Liz Cheney, who became a notable opponent of Trump within the Republican Party but ultimately lost her seat in Congress.