It’s time for another episode of “Are You Smarter than a Pediatrician,” where we match wits with the latest internet troll who has apparently allowed “TDS” to unravel her career and life.

TDS, as you might have heard, is short for Trump Derangement System, a term some conservatives like to attach to people who speak out against President Donald Trump vocally or via social media.

Let’s be clear — this is America and people are still allowed to express displeasure with those who govern us. It’s sort of what we’re all about as Americans.

Remember, speaking truth to power is why the United States came to be. So more power to those who speak up. We sometimes feel the need to join them on our opinion pages.

But with the power of freedom of speech comes — we hope — common sense and responsibility. Most of us apply and exercise both every day in most everything we do. If you’re like me, you seldom blurt out — or put in print or online — the first thing that comes to mind.

The term “measure twice, cut once” can be applied to leading with your heart against good sense. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a reaction cued up, ready to unleash, but thought better of it. It could be a prompt from an irate politician, angry caller, lousy driver on the road or a 3-wood that I topped, sliced or hit into the woods. I’ve dealt with all of them — and more — recently. But in each case, I’d like to think I took the high road and thought about what might happen if I just went with my first impulse.

Not only do elections have consequences, as President Barack Obama once said, so do actions and reactions. But increasingly, it seems that some folks can’t hold back when something gets to them. A younger version of myself was prone to throwing clubs when I hit an errant shot. But then I broke a club and it cost me about $90 to have it repaired, so I stopped doing that.

It also helped playing occasionally with a friend who is a minister and a retired teacher. My impulse to borrow verbiage from George Carlin after a bad shot suddenly developed a much-needed filter. You see, I didn’t want to disappoint my friend — a man I also consider a mentor — any more than my golf game doubtlessly would.

But not everyone has a filter and sometimes, when they’re not careful, they end up without a job as a result. Remember, social media never got anyone hired, but it has gotten lots of people fired.

That brings us to the curious case of Dr. Christina Propst, a Houston-based pediatrician — apparently well-regarded in her field — who didn’t just touch the third rail, but grabbed it with both hands and burnt her career to a crisp.

Propst weighed in on the tragic Texas flooding with a social-media post that suggested that those who were swept to their deaths in Kerr County — many of them children at a Christian girls camp — got what they deserved because voters there helped Trump win election again.

Propst couldn’t let go of her political bent even in the wake of what has become one of the worst natural disasters we’ve ever seen. With so many dead and even more still missing and presumed dead, you’d think even the zealots on both sides could give politics a rest for a day or two.

Is that the kind of person you’d want providing medical care to your children? My own nonscientific poll suggests that that answer is a resounding “no.”

Blue Fish Pediatrics, where Propst had worked for 17 years, apparently doesn’t think so, either. The practice fired her after the post surfaced and she was identified as the author.

Why are so many people so hateful, and yes, so stupid? Is hatred of Trump and his policies worth throwing away a career and reputation? The answer would seem to be obvious, but once again, someone led with their heart — and not their head — and discovered that freedom of speech does not come with freedom from consequences.

That unfortunate lesson, learned too late, is not limited to those on the left. Plenty of conservatives — from well-known pundits to previously anonymous folks — went hard with the first thing that came to mind and paid the price.

The most troubling thing about all this political sniping is that some aren’t content with words, as evidenced by the recent shootings of two Minnesota legislators and their spouses and other politically motivated violence.

The vast majority of us are still smarter and better people than that, but more Americans seem to be getting close to the borderline every day.

Ed Puskas is editor of the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator. Reach him at epuskas@tribtoday.com and 330-841-1786.