Obsession with Bennie Thompson leads to cases of TDS for Mississippi politicians

By Bobby Harrison | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Many Mississippi politicians have been afflicted in recent days with TDS – not Trump Derangement Syndrome, as President Donald Trump accuses his own critics of having, but a special Mississippi condition that can be called Thompson Derangement Syndrome.

Many seem obsessed with 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the lone Democrat and only Black member of the state’s congressional delegation.

The Mississippi politicians seem  particularly obsessed with removing Thompson from office and believe they have the opportunity to do so thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Louisiana v. Callais decision that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Many Southern states’ politicians are interpreting the Callais ruling as giving them permission to gerrymander political districts to prevent majority-Black districts. Thus far, the courts are saying that interpretation is all right.

Classic TDS symptoms

The most apparent symptom of TDS is the extensive use of social media to talk about Thompson, who served as Bolton mayor and Hinds County supervisor before winning a congressional seat in 1993.

State Auditor Shad White displays many of the classic TDS symptoms.

On social media, White, who presumably is busy as state auditor, has posted more than 20 times in recent days about how the Mississippi Legislature should eliminate Thompson’s district.

“Every Republican statewide and member of Congress in Mississippi — not just me, alone — should be calling to end the district gerrymandered to protect Bennie Thompson. We should all be singing from the same hymnal,” White wrote in one post.

White and others want to ensure that not a single one of the four Mississippi congressional districts has a Black majority even though the African American population of the state is nearly 40%, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, and is likely to be higher in the next official count in 2030.

Another apparent sufferer of TDS is state Sen. Kevin Blackwell of DeSoto County. He also is fond of talking about Thompson and does so often.

Blackwell posted on social media, “The J6 chairman can scream and fight all he wants, but the days of his liberal agenda and revenge tour against President Trump are coming to an end. It’s time to red-pill Mississippi and wipe out that gerrymandered seat once and for all.”

TDS sufferers seem particularly agitated by the fact that Thompson chaired a special House Committee looking into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the nation’s Capitol that included violence against police officers, destruction of property, the threat to hang Vice President Mike Pence and multiple other infractions such as smearing human waste in Capitol offices. Thompson was appointed to chair the special panel because he headed up the powerful House Homeland Security Committee.

Often TDS sufferers are upset by social media photographs of rocks in the sand (86, 47), such as those displayed by former FBI Director James Comey and University of Mississippi sociology professor James “J.T.” Thomas advocating, they say, that President Donald Trump be removed from office. But the TDS suffers are OK with threats against the vice president made as a hangman’s noose dangled in the background. 

TDS is spreading across the nation. Even the president has TDS and has threatened not only to erase Thompson’s district, but also to throw him in jail.

Perhaps the most notable sufferer of TDS is Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. He has a bad case.

A reign of terror?

The governor wrote, that Thompson’s “reign of terror on MS-2 (congressional district) is over. It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when.” 

Regardless of what one thinks of Thompson, he has been elected and reelected for decades by a clear majority of the 2nd District that comprises one quarter of the state’s population. The people in the district have the right to vote for whomever they want just as all Americans, regardless of race, have that right.

How does the democratic election of Thompson constitute a reign of terror?

Has he imposed physical violence on his constituents?

Were his constituents not allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice?

Are Thompson’s constituents cowering in their homes because of his reign of terror? The governor should explain, or perhaps he deserves a little grace because of his Thompson Derangement Syndrome.

Thompson, like the politicians afflicted with TDS, is a lifelong Mississippian. He has lived through terrible racism as a young man in the ’60s. He fought for civil rights and his own rights when the white power structure refused to seat him after he won a post in the city government of Bolton.

Yet, he still lives in Mississippi where he hunts, goes to church and is part of the community.

Thompson, after all, is limited in his power. He is one of 435 members of the U.S. House and a member of the minority party from the poorest state in the country.

Yet, he apparently has the ability to create a derangement syndrome that impacts many Mississippi politicians.

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article