Bannon could have been the current Dick Cheney, but he got greedy. The tendency of these grifters to shoot themselves in the dick is the left's biggest advantage. Cheney is harder. He wasn't just another grifter, he was the real deal and incredibly dangerous because of it.
I think Bannon is also an incredible mess of a person. He's clearly very smart and possesses a certain type of chaotic charisma, but he just can't get his shit together in a way that, honestly, I sorta get. Both men are extremely dangerous, but Cheney is patient, and that makes all the difference.
Drugs are a hell of a drug.
Amen to that, brother.
Also, Cheney believes in things, and Bannon doesn't. Bannon has things he hates, sure, but that's not the same thing as having values. Cheney values awful, harmful things, but he values those things sincerely.
Well Cheney had goals outside of himself. He had (and has, fucker isn't dead) a vision for the world. Bannon is more focused on himself than he is on some broader plan. And caring about his image is what's killing it.
I'd argue that Bannon's inherently self-destructive. He knows he's a piece of shit, he thinks everyone else is as bad as he is, and as much as he'd like to succeed like the other grifters, he just hates himself too much. That wall con is a great example. He partnered with fools on a doomed scam.
I repeat: drugs are a hell of a drug. Bannon is Alex Jones with a less desperate grift. All this said, there is a Cheney now who's worse: fucking Stephen Miller. That self-hating Nazi shithead is the most likely reason we'll end up in Fallout. There's no one in the administration more evil.
He certainly finds the most glee in the suffering of the defenseless. I don't think he hates himself, though. I'm pretty sure that Stephen Miller is the only person on earth that Stephen Miller respects.