Political Pistachio

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Long ago I met S.E. Cupp at an event in 2008, and was rewarded with an autographed copy of one of her works (for the amazing price of twenty bucks). I offered, and she accepted, to have her as a guest on my online radio program (I didn’t move to terrestrial radio until 2010). Back then, she had a shred of brainwaves pulsing through her brain. During the interview I learned that she was a New York City girl who thought herself to be an undercover conservative. What she had learned about what lefties think and conservatives actually are led her to write the book with Brett Joshpe: “Why You’re Wrong About the Right: Behind the Myths – The Surprising Truth About Conservatives.” The book proved to be a little tongue in cheek, and while interviewing her I picked up on the fact that she was a person in turmoil, wanting to believe what she was saying but not so sure about a few things. As a constitutionalist I picked up on a few moments of confused thoughts and tried to correct her in the most reasonable manner I could.

For a short spell, Cupp appeared on Fox News and commented on various issues. She wasn’t the most conservative person on the tube at the time, but she didn’t come across as a raving lefty. Then, she departed from the conservative landscape, only to reappear later in places like MSNBC and CNN. I wondered about that. Had she become a missionary attempting to take truth to the land of the lawless and deceived? Or, had she succumbed to the lures and bait put out by the left?

It didn’t take long to realize she had gone to the dark side. I don’t know what did it, but she was there. Did they reignite ancient indoctrinal blatherings hammered into her from her NYC youth? Did they tempt her with promises of power and might? Did they simply have better cookies and ice cream in the break room?

Facts about history and the U.S. Constitution seems to be a strength of mine, and I learned quickly not to take anything she had to say seriously, anymore, because on those fronts, she was all over the map – not that I took her words for gospel in the first place. So, as far as I was concerned, it was time to move on to other voices, and let her fall into whatever dark CNN pit she had jumped into.

As a fairly regular reader of the Daily Caller, this morning S.E. Cupp suddenly appeared on the main screen of my computer as I sat to work on my daily writing ritual. It turns out that Cupp’s journey to the dark side has nearly completed its course, with her barely landing short of putting on a black mask, breathing through scuba gear, and speaking like James Earl Jones. Apparently, the arrival of Donald J. Trump completed her training and she’s gone from leftwing apprentice to a fully indoctrinated member of the progressive TDS Myth Lords.

On CNN’s “Table for Five” discussion on “CNN Saturday Morning,” S.E. Cupp suggested that “the United States was becoming more like North Korea under President Trump’s leadership.” Quite a claim considering that the Asian communist country ranks among the most repressive and reclusive nations of the world. Republican New York City Councilman Joe Borelli told her she was being a bit “extreme,” so Cupp doubled down.

Cupp called the country “militarized,” laying out examples. “With our streets militarized, our voting militarized, our airports militarized, I am so concerned about the North Korea coded stuff that is going on right now…from Pam Bondi unfurling a banner with Trump’s face on it on the DOJ building to Trump putting his signature on our currency and his name on the Kennedy Center, to inviting only friendly media outlets who are going to say exactly what you want in Pentagon briefings. I mean, it goes on and on and on.”

“When did we want to become North Korea? This should be unnerving, disturbing to everyone. This is not partisan. This is scary stuff,” she added. “So it can feel like a slow creep, and MAGA will justify it using Trump’s lie about the election. But look around. Look around at your country, people. Is this what you want? You want to walk down the street and see, you know, rifles, guys with guns patrolling because for no reason at all, just to intimidate you? Is that what you want? You want to walk around and see the president’s face on the Department of Justice, which is a separate but co-equal branch of government? It’s bananas.”

And stop…

The militarization claim is a targeted blast regarding Trump’s use of armed immigration personnel from ICE and Border Patrol to round up and deport criminal aliens (and, yes, sometimes the not-so-violent illegal aliens get caught up in that whole deal, too, since they’re hanging out with the dangerous violent criminals). Armed personnel is kind of necessary. Do rapists, child molesters, burglars, murderers, violent gang members, human traffickers, drug traffickers, and terrorists come along quietly when social workers softly try to talk them into giving up their evil ways? Does S.E. Cupp and her fellow lost ones on CNN and elsewhere in the leftist bubble-sphere think that they all hang out at bad-guy central rather than trying to blend into the population and use innocent neighborhoods as shields? Despite the ridiculous and deceitful rhetoric, the streets are not militarized, but federal police officers with guns are involved in rounding up the worst of the worst as President Trump promised and the reality is that sometimes it happens when everyone is watching, and idiot protesters getting in the way may get hurt because they are, well, in the way. The whole Pretti/Good argument is like claiming the driver is at fault because someone suddenly leaped in front of a moving vehicle on the freeway. The idiots shouldn’t have gotten in the way in the first place, and sometimes when things are going at a fast pace injuries and deaths can happen. The best way to avoid injury is not to walk on the freeway, not to walk in front of moving vehicles, and not interfere with police work when bad guys are on the loose.

But Cupp’s ignorance reached farther than the common sense obvious. She’s supposed to be a political commentator, technically a Republican (but she voted for Biden in 2020), and educated (BA from Cornell, MA from NYU), yet she said, “Department of Justice, which is a separate but co-equal branch of government.”

She apparently thinks the DOJ is a part of the judicial branch – which it is not. It’s an executive branch department, of which Donald J. Trump currently serves as chief executive over. Besides, the whole three co-equal branches thing is inaccurate, anyway. It’s a ruse in place to convince you that the judges are somehow on the same level (or higher, in the minds of some knuckleheads) than the legislators or President. The fact is, we do not have three “co-equal” branches. They are not equal, with very different responsibilities that make them far from equal when it comes to certain things. Their duties give them a strong arena to operate in as long as they stay in their lane, but they have no power in the realms of the other branches. The President and Judges have no legislative power. Congress cannot execute the laws they write, and it takes a strong majority to put law into effect if the President is not willing to sign the law. The President’s power over foreign affairs and war are much stronger than any of the other branches, and it takes law passed by a super-majority to check the President if they don’t decide to impeach him in the attempt to change his behavior should he work in a manner they are offended by. And let’s not forget John Jay’s decision not to return as Chief Justice in 1801 – because the judicial branch was too weak in his opinion. The judicial branch was designed to be the weakest of the three branches of government, with only the power to apply the law belonging to them. Judicial Review was shot down during the Constitutional Convention, and Thomas Jefferson screamed about how unconstitutional it was for the judges to grant themselves the power through John Marshall’s opinion in Marbury v. Madison (but we’ve come to accept that lie in today’s political game, just like we’ve adopted the lie of three co-equal branches).

I don’t know what happened to the former Red Eye with Gutfeld regular over the years, but ever since hanging out with MSNBC people on The Cycle, and now her bed-fellows over at CNN, it seems to me that Cupp has gone over the deep end, turned to the dark side, and has drank more political kool-aid than most folks… yet still tries to claim she’s a conservative and Republican.

She may claim to be for limited government, self-reliance, and self-empowerment, but her Trump Derangement Syndrome and willingness to vote for people like Biden tells me she’s either full of that stuff grandma calls manure, or she has indeed turned to the dark side but hasn’t realized it yet. Perhaps the fact that she’s hanging out with some extremely politically misguided folks might serve as a clue.

— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary