Washington loves a good performance. Dick Cheney’s funeral proves it. The National Cathedral is looking like a museum exhibit of the old political class. The old guard who once ran Washington gathered to honor one of their own. People who have spent years blaming each other for everything from war to inflation suddenly acted like a big, happy family. Except the only people they refused to welcome were the sitting president, Donald Trump, and Vice President JD Vance.

A Ceremony Frozen in Yesterday’s Washington

Their absence mattered more than any eulogy on the program. Funerals for major statesmen usually include the current White House. This one did not. The Cheney family kept the door open for every former leader of the past twenty years except the ones voters chose to lead the country right now. That choice carried its own message. The establishment did not lose its manners. It lost its power, and it still resents the people who took it from them.

According to the reporting, the cathedral will hold the same Washington that ran the country before Trump came in and upturned the apple cart. It resembles the old order assembling again, the same Washington that existed before Trump tore open the polite surface that hid years of conflict. Bush and Biden are expected. All four former vice presidents made the list. Pelosi and McConnell are included. Chief Justice John Roberts joins other justices and Cabinet veterans. The picture reflects a political world that once felt permanent.

The funeral’s guest list itself is a nod to a time when Washington was not so polarized and politicians from both sides of the aisle paid their respects when a dignitary passed away. – CNN

The guests attending the funeral are there to show respect, and many of them once stood at the center of Washington’s power. Now they return as figures from an earlier era. Their presence brings the old guard back into one room, even as the country continues down a very different road.

The crowd tells the story better than any speech scheduled for the service.

Spotted from inside Dick Cheney’s funeral: Rachel Maddow and Anthony Fauci sitting together.

Also: Mitch McConnell. John Boehner sitting with Nancy Pelosi. George Conway. Bill Kristol. Bob Woodward. James Carville. Adam Schiff. Several of Liz Cheney’s former colleagues from the… pic.twitter.com/Nj19pwP2HW

— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) November 20, 2025

The Legacy Washington Wants to Remember

Cheney represents that earlier era better than anyone. He helped drive the country’s response after 9/11 and shaped the Iraq War. He believed in hard power and never apologized for it. Cheney left office deeply unpopular, yet the establishment now presents him as a steady hand from a bygone era. Washington is always generous when it comes to rewriting its own history.

Liz Cheney will speak at the service. She worked closely with her father and built much of her public life around the same institutions he shaped. Her presence reflects the long political arc of their family. She later tried to revive that old Washington storyline by dragging Trump through a so-called resurrection during her January 6 crusade, but the voters moved on without her.

A Reminder That the Divide Was Always There

That history makes the exclusion of Vance stand out even more. The absence of Trump is dramatic, but it no longer surprises anyone. Leaving out the sitting Vice President is different. His role alone would normally place him on the guest list for a service honoring a former vice president. Skipping him sends a message about where the old guard draws its line. The group preparing to gather at the funeral built its world in a different era and shows little interest in the political future voters chose with Trump and Vance. The decision to keep him out did not come from protocol. It came from intent.

Reports hint at a broader effort to marginalize the populist wing once Trump leaves the stage, and the exclusion of Vance fits neatly into that pattern.

CNN describes the funeral as a reminder of a less polarized time. The idea sounds comforting, yet it does not match the record. Washington was never gentle or unified before the populist wave. The conflicts simply stayed behind closed doors. The public did not see the fractures until they opened in 2016. The gathering planned for this funeral reflects a world that once felt insulated from outside pressure, even though that world has already passed.

A Farewell to a World That Is Gone

All of this reveals something larger than who shows up or who stays home.

The funeral carries a meaning beyond the tributes. The old establishment understands it cannot rebuild the world it once directed. It also recognizes that the country has chosen a different path. The only people left off the guest list were the ones elected to lead the nation now, and that choice says more than any speech planned for the service.

The era they hope to honor has ended. The guests arriving to pay their respects may not want to accept that, but the country already has.

Feature Image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons