An Open Letter of Condolence, and a Rebuke of the Spoils of Political Barf

 

An Open Letter of Condolence, and a Rebuke of the Spoils of Political Barf

By Brian Wilson: The Bipartisan Patriot 

To the family of Dick Cheney, his wife Lynne, daughters Liz and Mary, grandchildren and all who loved him, I offer my deepest condolences. Public service is a wild, lonely road. You walked it with a man who for decades answered that call. Whatever one thinks of his policies, the willingness to serve is no small act. Thank you, Mr. Cheney, for stepping forward when many stayed silent.

Now the rest of us, the political class(or classless if you will), the media, the commentators, need to look in the mirror. Because what we are witnessing in the shadow of his passing is unbecoming. The headline I saw: “Dick Cheney Critics React to His Death: ‘Rest in Hell’.” That isn’t critique. That isn’t accountability. That is cruelty masquerading as political expression.

Did we really arrive in a place where victory at death’s door is cheered? Where the demise of a public figure becomes content to be mined, tweeted, ginned up? Where the moral baseline for public commentary is not respect for the loss, but how loudly we can thunder our ideological disdain?

Let me say this plainly: If you celebrate a human being’s death, whether you support their policies or despise them, your moral character is blinking red. If you post a social-media fireworks display because one life ended and you didn’t like their politics, you have become part of a festering habit in our politics. It has become a serious blemish on our public culture.

Yes, Cheney’s legacy invites scrutiny. His role in post-9/11 policy, the invasion of Iraq, the expansion of executive power all deserve rigorous debate. But debate is not the same as reveling in death. Critical history doesn’t need necrophilia. Yet here we are, scrolling through bile disguised as justice. One former congressman proudly typed that he “won’t ever shed a tear for a war criminal of his ilk,” as though moral cruelty were a badge of courage. Fine, disagree. Attack policy. Expose record. But that phrase, that posture, is not debate; it’s moral bankruptcy. If you publicly celebrate anyone’s death, any, you forfeit your claim to righteousness.

This has become business as usual. The media outlet, the commentator, the “influencer” who tosses a toast each time someone with power breathes their last. We’ve normalized it. We’ve come to expect it. We don’t have to. We must not.

Once, we had a basic public code: At death, we stop for a moment. We acknowledge the human before the ideological. Not out of naiveté. Out of humility. Because we know how quickly power can flip, how today’s critic might be tomorrow’s scapegoat. Because in a democracy, even the embattled have human loss.

So let’s have this: To the Cheney family, thank you, and may your grief be known and respected beyond the pundit-troll burrow. To the rest of us, enough of the spectacle. Enough of the click-bait “death cheer.” Enough of the notion that ideological disgust licenses inhumanity.

If we cannot muster basic dignity at the end of life, then our political rhetoric is empty. We’re not fighting for principles; we’re fighting for clicks. In the end, what kind of society lets hatred become the default farewell?

We can do better. We must.

Rest now in peace. Let us, in the living room of public discourse, rise to something better than this.

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” -Martin Luther King Jr.