ecthompsonmd

Home » Archives for ecthompsonmd

About ecthompsonmd

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far ecthompsonmd has created 6679 blog entries.

We Must Do Better

I have just gotten off the phone with constitutional scholar Linda Monk. She and I became friends years ago when I invited her on my radio show. She was on my show several times and was always insightful. I initially interviewed her about her book, The Words We Live By, a book on the Constitution. An alternative title would be A Simple, Thoughtful Guide to the Constitution and Why It Is Essential.

Her follow-up book, The Bill of Rights, the User’s Guide, was as excellent and fabulous as the original book. Anyway, I called her to discuss the 14th Amendment.

First of all, let me say that Linda Monk is brilliant. She is a Harvard-trained lawyer. She grew up in the Deep South, which gives her a deep sense of right and wrong. As with all of our conversations, we wandered through recent events. Although I wanted to talk about the fourteenth amendment specifically, we talked about many different things, including gerrymandering in North Carolina. We discussed corrupt Clarence Thomas and his misdeeds. We also discussed the overwhelming flood of legislation that can generally be described as, “I hate you because you are different.”

Our conversation was delightful. It was filled with lots of laughs and information. At the end of the conversation, as I hung up the phone, I felt somewhat depressed. As a progressive, how could you not?

Over the past 60 years, progressives have slowly but steadily pushed this country to be kinder, more equal, and more accepting of anyone who is not a white male. We have more equality for women. We have (almost, but getting there) equal pay for women and minorities. We have passed laws that say you cannot discriminate against pregnant women, the LGBTQ community, or anyone because of their religion.

Republicans in many states, including Texas and Florida, have passed laws in the last several weeks to erase all of this. Republicans are trying to tell teachers what they can and cannot teach. They are trying to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. They are even telling teenagers who they are permitted to be in their lives.

It is enough to make you want to throw in the towel. Just shake your head and say it is enough. I am done. But, of course, that is what they want. Republicans want you to throw in the towel. They want us to feel helpless, overwhelmed, and defeated.

I am reminded of that fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman many years ago. Muhammad Ali was towards the end of his career. George Foreman was a mountain of a man. He had knocked out Joe Fraser and Ken Norton, whom Muhammad Ali struggled to defeat. Not only did Foreman knock them out, but he also knocked them out quickly in the early rounds. From the opening bell, in the Ali-Foreman fight, it appeared that Muhammad Ali was outmatched. Foreman seemed to be landing hard blow after hard blow.

In the third round, Ali employed what would later be called “rope-a-dope.” Muhammad Ali would retreat to the corner and cover-up. He would taunt Foreman (“Is that as hard as you can hit? My mother hits harder!”) and allow Foreman to punch him as hard as possible. The blows would glance off Ali’s arms and shoulders. Foreman had punched himself out by the sixth round. Then in the middle of the seventh round, Ali saw his opportunity against his exhausted foe and countered with a flurry of punches that knocked out Foreman.

We need to be more like Ali. We cannot let these Republican tactics affect us. We must cover up, study our opponent and wait for our opportunity to strike (not physically). We need to vote!

By |2023-08-30T00:28:02-04:00August 30th, 2023|Domestic Issues|0 Comments

Tucker Carlson, Fear, and Loathing in the United States

Have we simply gone mad? Are we merely in some weird sci-fi movie in which everybody has lost their marbles? 

  • A couple of weeks ago, a family was playing basketball, and the basketball rolled into a neighbor’s yard. The neighbor took a firearm and fired at the girl and her parents. 
  • Then, in upstate New York, a group of girls, teenagers, were looking for a friend’s house. They drove into the wrong driveway. The homeowner began firing at the car, striking and killing the driver. 
  • In Kansas City, a young Black boy walked up to a door and rang the doorbell. He was looking for his brother. Unfortunately, he was at the wrong house. The owner opened the door and shot the young man in the head. While the man was on the ground, he shot him again in the arm. By some miracle the boy survived.

On the one hand, you could easily say that these were all isolated incidents. They had nothing to do with each other. America is a big place. We have over 330 million people in the United States. Yet all of these incidents, and more, are related. These men—all three of the shooters were men—were primed and ready. They knew exactly what they were doing. They’ve been repeatedly told that “everyone is out to get them.” Elites are stealing their power. Immigrants are trying to replace them. They have to fight for what is theirs. They have to “Stand Their Ground.”

The Most Dangerous Man in America
Tucker Carlson is a failed news anchor. He has been kicked off of CNN as well as MSNBC. Yet, he landed a prime-time spot on Fox News. Tucker Carlson looks innocent enough with his doughy face and frequent boyish bowties. His innocent appearance, along with his “we’re just asking questions” approach, has allowed audiences to be sucked in. Once you are sucked into that vortex, you can easily be hooked. 

Tucker Carlson will tell you that he is in your corner, that he is fighting for you. He assures you he is telling you the truth that nobody else will. He is the champion for the “legacy Americans.” (Yes, this is a term that Tucker Carlson has adopted from White supremacy websites. Legacy Americans. He is saying White Americans without being overtly racist.)

Several years ago, Tucker Carlson got into hot water while explaining his replacement theory. He stated that the Democrats wanted more immigration to get a docile population that would blindly vote for Democrats and replace white Americans. This would lead to democratic power forever. This white “replacement theory” comes directly from white supremacy websites. It is nuts. It has no basis in reality, but that doesn’t stop Tucker Carlson or the white supremacists from repeating this nonsense over and over again.

Tucker Carlson became the most-watched cable news show of all time by stoking the fears and anger of baby boomers. At no point does he ever tell his audience that there is nothing to be afraid of. Instead, he always gives them something to be angry about or fearful of. He always gives them a reason to explain why their life hasn’t turned out as great as they hoped. He always gives them somebody to blame. Whether it is Black Lives Matter or greedy immigrants at the border, or Democrats coming to take your guns, Tucker Carlson always, always gives his viewers a target for their anger.

Early in the Ukrainian war, Tucker Carlson went on a unique rant. He asked his audience why Washington elites have told them they should hate Vladimir Putin. What did Vladimir Putin ever do to them? Did Putin give their hard-earned tax dollars to unworthy welfare recipients? Did Putin force them to accept woke ideology? Of course not: it was the Democrats, especially Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, doing those things to them.

Then, Tucker Carlson flipped to the other side and stated that we had no reason to support Ukraine, the country that gave Joe Biden’s family millions of dollars. Sure, there were lies and falsehoods in Tucker Carlson’s rant. There always are. At no point did Tucker Carlson ever state that Vladimir Putin has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of his countrymen. He never said that Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea for no good reason other than he wanted to. He never told his audience that Ukraine was a young, fledgling democracy like our country was more than 250 years ago. 

But the fact is, Ukraine was a sovereign country invaded by Russia—by Vladimir Putin—because he thought he could. He thought he could take over a sovereign European country and the rest of the world would sit by and watch. He thought Donald Trump had gutted NATO so thoroughly that it wouldn’t do a thing. He even thought Joe Biden would behave the way Donald Trump behaved.

Thousands of Ukrainians have died because Russia wanted to take the land and resources of Ukraine, but Tucker Carlson left all of this out. Instead, he painted Vladimir Putin as some friend of the United States. Here’s a fact check: Neither Carlson nor Putin is a friend of the United States.

After losing a $787-million-dollar defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News has fired Tucker Carlson. Finally. Now we are left to contemplate his legacy. 

We need to understand that, as humans, we are susceptible to certain types of persuasion. We are emotional beings. Looking back through history, the most persuasive speakers were probably the most passionate. I have mentioned this before, but the more emotional we get, the less logical we become. We shut down our logic centers. We begin to switch on our fight-or-flight response. 

This is what Tucker Carlson excelled at. He would lay down a series of statements designed to get an emotional reaction from you, the viewer. 

Tucker Carlson is not good for the United States. He is not good for democracy. He is not good for our politics, our policies, or our citizens. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think that Congress can reign in this chaos. Germany has done so. They have passed laws that make it illegal to spew inflammatory rhetoric. We don’t have the political will for Congress to pass the laws necessary to curb inflammatory speech. Even if Congress passed such a law, I suspect the Supreme Court would strike it down as unconstitutional. None of us should be surprised when Fox News finds another talking head who can use sociological triggers to tap into white resentment, white hatred, and white fear, just like Tucker Carlson did.

By |2023-08-30T00:14:40-04:00August 26th, 2023|Domestic Issues, Media|0 Comments

June 6th D-Day

June 6, 1944, also known as the longest day, was the day that we stormed the beaches of France. Against all odds we (along with our allies) got a foot hold on Europe. From there we were able to push inland. It was truly a remarkable achievement. There are several GREAT summaries of D-day (here, here and here). I highly recommend Stephen Ambrose’s book, D-Day.

By |2023-06-06T21:51:11-04:00June 6th, 2023|Military|Comments Off on June 6th D-Day
Go to Top