Cheney — or — What’s in a name?

The mere mention of the Cheney name evokes powerful reactions from Wyomingites. It seems that nobody can discuss that name dispassionately.

The Cheney name, instead, is laden with polarizing political overtones that issue from a part of the brain that cannot be objective, that fixates upon the bright shiny objects of our modern civil discourse. This, in my opinion, reflects poorly on ourselves as citizens, and says little about the Cheneys.

The recent passing of Dick Cheney re-animated this strange phenomenon. His critics came out of the woodwork to dance on his grave and vilify him with their voices on social media. Scant indeed were those willing to acknowledge Dick Cheney’s considerable contributions to the state and nation that he loved.

Marc Antony’s funeral oration in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” seems fitting to remember here. “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.” We are too prone to focus on the negative rather than the good when we talk about the Cheneys.

I worked with Congressman Dick Cheney and his capable staff in the 80s, when I served in the Wyoming Governor’s Office. Cheney enjoyed universal respect for the way he represented Wyoming in Congress. His political acumen and his ability to “work across the aisle” with Democrats to get things done for the Cowboy State as our lone congressman were particularly valuable.

Back then, Wyoming was the envy of the nation for the effectiveness of our delegation — Cheney and Sens. Al Simpson and Malcolm Wallop. They left big bootprints on history. Cheney even wrote a book, “Kings of the Hill,” a historical blueprint for how Congress can work when guided by noble personalities and true statesmen.

I’m wondering aloud how a name that was once solid gold in Wyoming could, in such a short time, draw such bile from people he once represented so ably. For a state that prides itself on a long memory and sense of history, we have a very limited perspective when it comes to the Cheney name.

Don’t misunderstand, I hold the entire Bush the Younger administration, Vice President Cheney included, culpable for the disastrous Iraq War. That misadventure did a lot of damage. But it does not erase from my mind Cheney’s productive years as a fine legislator, nor does it diminish his contributions to Wyoming.

Those who posthumously vilify Dick Cheney suffer from a very selective myopia if they can’t acknowledge his stature in Wyoming politics. That says more about them than it does about him.

The same can be said about the political trajectory of another Cheney, Dick’s daughter Liz, who was elected to her father’s seat in Congress. Liz Cheney’s early terms in Congress were marked by her impressive legislative record and her almost meteoric rise to a leadership position in the House GOP.

I ran against Liz in the GOP primary in 2018, and my ass-whuppin’ at the polls gave me an object lesson in the potency and charisma of the Cheney name.

Liz Cheney’s future in Wyoming politics seemed limitless in those days. She was our fair-haired cowgirl, and folks in the Big Empty adored her. During Trump’s first term, Liz voted with the president over 90% of the time.

That changed in a heartbeat when Liz broke ranks with Trump and voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Her vote, which in my opinion was an act of incredible political courage and patriotism, came at a high cost. Liz lost her seat in the next primary and became a pariah in the state that once revered her.

If Liz Cheney’s fall from grace proved anything, it proved that the Trump name is more important in Wyoming than the Cheney name. And I find that appalling.

For Trump’s name to replace the Cheney name at the apex of the Wyoming political pantheon says less about those names than it does about us as citizens.

And this turn of events calls to mind another Marc Antony quote from “Julius Caesar” when he says, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”