Cheney's For Trump

When I was younger, it was fashionable for those on the left to describe those on the right as "fascists". Liberals weren't paying the least attention to conservative takes on issues; instead, they were sniffing past all that to some inner core of being, where they believed they detected the whiff of jackboots. It was offensive, provocative, and the trope died long ago.

Obviously, we're still as tribal as ever - maybe more so. We still talk past each other on issues, because our attention remains ratcheted on a deeper sense of otherness; the way in which conservatives are, like, assholes, and liberals are, like, assholes. Of course, both are right; assholery is a pan-human trait that's more readily perceived on the other side (as I once wrote, "Racism, sexism, classism, etc. are nothing more than the incomplete registration of a perfectly appropriate misanthropy").

But then today Dick Cheney, a man of principles (even if you detest them), endorsed Donald Trump, who shares very few of those principles. And I can't help imagining that the primary appeal, heaven help me, had to be Trump's fascism.