Dick Cheney: The Quintessential Villain of the American West

Dick Cheney is a black hat-wearing bad guy straight out of the Old West. But he is not of the West in the way he pretends -- the long-past Wyoming childhood, the simple black and white tough talk, the hunting with and wounding of other rich cowboys. He is not a lone villain or even a leader of a rogue gang. He is not symbolically riding the range and terrorizing the good citizens of Americaville from his undisclosed location.

All that is schlock, an image -- yes, even the bad stuff -- that serves mostly, at this point, to infuriate the left. I can hear liberals screaming right now, "Old West?!? He was the CEO of Halliburton; he lived in Washington DC for decades; he is the ultimate Beltway insider!"

Yes! Yes! Yes! That is the point. The Old West was not about cowboys and bootstraps, a lone rancher or hunter exposed to the elements or brave settlers battling hostile Indians or a heroic man standing alone at high noon on Main Street waiting to draw his gun. That is all a cultural overlay -- hard-earned and authentic for the relative few who actually lived it -- but for the most part, it serves better as an advertising campaign for dude ranches.

No, the story of the American West is of industrial might and brute military force, projected from the settled East towards the unsettled West, making a select few rich, empowering big government, leaving most of the rest to chase a dream manufactured in dime store westerns, John Wayne movie and comical photo ops of George W. Bush clearing brush on his "ranch."

Don't get me wrong, I love the myth. I was raised on the myth, and I liked prospecting for fake 49er gold in my California school yard, even if artisanal gold mining and charmingly scruffy prospectors quickly led to industrial strip mining and to big holes in the earth that inspire more existential dread than 19th century charm (take a drive between beautiful old Bisbee, Arizona and the mine next door if you want the best example).

The dream of the West has inspired greatness. But for every wagon train that made it unaided across the wilderness, there have been thousands of workers beholden to the railroads, the mining companies, big oil, timber, and, finally, defense contractors. These behemoths gobbled up land and lives, lobbying their way to power in Washington, ruling over Western cities like personal fiefdoms (for the best take I know on the myth of California, which is essentially the myth of the West, read Joan Didion's book, Where I Was From).

And what made all this possible in the end? The strategic and often brutal use of the U.S. Army to pacify the Native Americans and keep the rabble in line.

Sound familiar?

This is Dick Cheney's version of the West, spewing crap about self-reliance while enriching big business, casually defending brutality to further the power politics of the United States.

Cheney is from Wyoming, which is 48 percent owned by the federal government -- more than 30 million acres ripped out of the hands of private enterprise, if you want to look at it that way (I do not). His father was a federal employee; he has been a federal employee for most of his life. The big industries in Wyoming these days? Tourism in national parks and... coal, natural gas and oil extraction.

So do not think of him as any character in a typical Western, bound by a private code of honor, for good or evil. He is more the Iago-like quartermaster at an Army outpost filling the ear of the spectacularly weak commander. He is the bureaucrat always on the telegraph to headquarters, refusing supplies to his enemies, passing off disease-ridden blankets to defeated Native Americans.

Now, of course, the post has a new commander, and Dick got discharged. So he wanders aimlessly from saloon to saloon, drinking too much sarsaparilla, blabbering on and annoying soldiers, cowboys and townsfolk alike.

But he is not done. He will get off the sarsaparilla, find a new undisclosed location in Wyoming or Texas or Washington DC and get back to the business of the West, now the business of Halliburton, of Iraq, of oil exploration in pristine wildernesses.

For sadly, in both the Old West and the new West, the big boys in the smoke-filled rooms always need a Dick Cheney. He is the face of faceless corporations, the embodiment of secret decisions made in smoke-filled rooms. After he sobers up and stops talking, the spiritual descendants of the railroad barons will seek out this quiet bureaucratic strongman so they can continue to gobble up land, consolidate power and keep the little guy in line.

Comments

[RobertHenryEller]

I hope we're paying attention to the fact that here, a few months after the fact, we're paying 100% attention to the Vice-President, and not the President, of the Bush Administration.

I believe that the sole legal job of the Vice-President is to serve as president pro tem of the Senate. There are no other official duties.

And yet this Vice-President has done a few things beyond sitting in the Senate and breaking tie votes.

Consider well how that happened.

[Nathan Hegedus - Huffpost Blogger]

Exactly. Does anyone even remember who the president was the past 8 years? Some guy living in a Dallas suburb never to be heard from again?

It is all the more clearer who had the real power, as if we did not know before.

[FGGreene]

So Cheney is the Henry Fonda character, "Frank" in "Once upon a TIme in the West." The hastiest villian in the best of all spaghetti westerns.

For those who haven't seen it: The character is defined by shooting an 8-year-old boy in the opening scene. Of course he also kicks the crutches out from under the crippled Bush equivalent character later in the movie. Sounds like something Cheney would do.

[alvin12]

Guess what Repugs? That "empty suit" (Obama) is kicking your butt.

[MJPD345]

Dick Cheney represents every single thing that is quintessentially WRONG with America. He's broken every rule he's dodged every draft and he serves only for himself. And he just won't go away. Media manipulation is his only craft. He can't fish and he certainly can't shoot straight. Please stop paying attention to this guy.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

Dick Cheney: 1960's draft dodger, 21st century warmonger.

[CeeCee]

You lost me at "brave settlers battling hostile Indians."

That should be: "foreign settlers trying to steal the Indians' lands."

[Nathan Hegedus - Huffpost Blogger]

I was playing with the Western myth. It was in context and tone. Sorry if it was not clear enough.

[tobyjack]

After he sobers up and stops talking, the spiritual descendants of the railroad barons will seek out this quiet bureaucratic strongman so they can continue to gobble up land, consolidate power and keep the little guy in line.

Hopefully they will all be sharing a cellblock with him.

[lightningbolt]

The United States' conquest of the west was accompanied by one of the largest holocausts in world history. The United States is responsible for the murders of about 12 million Native Americans. This country has always been an empire cloaked in the shroud of "democracy".

[Bardmess]

Good article. Minimum wage ranch workers and cowboys will vote with big oil every time, almost. Only the Indians and Mexican-Americans of the real old west understand.

[bronceye]

He is the embodiment of the Johnson County Wars which was waged by barons of European bearing ruling the priaries of Wyoming and killing settlers and "squatters" who crossed or dwelt on "their" land. Somewhere between those folks and the Tea Pot Dome folks is where chinny's head lies. When he ran for VP initially, he hadn't voted in Wyoming for 16 yrs. There was some real helter skelter going on to get him registered before the election. I can't remember if he had voted somewhere else or if he had "better things to do". He is a testament to self service.

[gconners]

Another myth of the Old West was the face-to-face, drawing, gunfight. They DID occur, but many more people were killed being ambushed, shot in the back or shot in their sleep! Dick Cheney is ultimately a coward. He would have dealt with any problems the latter way over the former.

[mommadona]

"That's CHEEENEY, to you"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km7WD8wkb1c

[wmfor]

I saw Cheney on TV this morning saying he worries that Obama's policies are going to hurt small businesses, which are the backbone of our nation or some such crap. Cheney would be happy if one conglomerate owned everything in the country, as long as he was part of it.

[gconners]

KBR was, I'm not sure if it still is, a small business. Can someone please clarify what determines a "small business"? It's a convenient term to throw around but what are the parameters?

[AddyGmom]

On the same level as his protecting the 'little guys' i.e. Like the lawyers in the next level down from him (Scooter) --- not the enlisted 'little guys' . Those 'little guys' are cannon fodder , expendable.

[joetherealist]

I think it's $5 million a year in sales or less...