The ‘thoughts and prayers’ that cascade from the fingertips of US politicians is now the standard operating language that follows a national tragedy in the US. I believe it is meant to make the families of victims of tragedy feel better or less alone in their grief. At the very least, I’m sure it makes politicians feel less complicit about how they’ve allowed certain tragedies to happen.
REQUISITE SIDEBAR: It does not explain exactly what “warmest condolences” means, but it appears that Trump was touched so profoundly by the events in Las Vegas that he did not turn to his hired human-simulator speech writers and decided to give it a go on his own. It was a tweet after all and his base expects authenticity. The effort was apparent. Eschewing the more obvious first six choices and reading all the way down to Sympathy Choice #7 , Trump landed on the prize. The problem is that a warm condolence from Trump still feels like his little hand sliding into someone’s pants.
But back to the thoughts and prayers. Chief among those expressing this sentiment is Mike Pence, poster boy for the NRA (according to the NRA), whose campaign accepted $30 million in donations from the gun lobby. While Pence is getting all emotional, the NRA has not commented on what happened in Las Vegas. Their last tweet is dated September 29th in which they promote their Sportsmen’s Association 2017 Firearms Civil Rights Conference.
So, what are these ‘thoughts’ that the politicians are having? Trump’s offer of “We’re here for you” is a handful of sand. We’re here for you with what, exactly? A monument to the victims in Vegas? An annual day of mourning? A free concert? All of that is easy compared to battling the NRA lobby for better laws and forfeiting their funding. Who are we kidding - this is a president and a government that can’t get anything done, so changing gun laws is laughably out of the question. Anyway, why face that unappealing truth when you can just bring along an easy distraction - Melania – in the hopes that she repeats her mid-air wardrobe change to match the type of disaster she is visiting.
These days, sympathy appears to start and stop with a tweet. 140 characters of deep feeling. Pipiatum ergo tristis sum- I tweet, therefore I am sad. To get to the heart of the matter, #thoughtsandprayers delivers the sympathy faster and more efficiently. Throw in a GIF of a flickering candle and some #PrayForVegas merch which implores Twitter readers to ‘send your money to make a difference” (although it is unstated exactly where that money is going except to pay for a t-shirt), and a USA Today article on how prayer can make a difference in these difficult times and you can check that item off your list.
But again, what are these thoughts politicians are having? I’d wager they’re happy to allow the media to distract the public until the subject goes away.
The American model of grief confuses me because it has conflated itself with the American news cycle. The process follows a now-familiar pattern: event (Sunday), news coverage of the event (Monday), charts displaying the comparative stats of American shootings (by date/number of deaths/ background of perpetrator (Monday), news coverage of the politicians expressing their #thoughtsandprayers, news coverage of the perpetrator (Monday), news coverage of the public candlelight sing-alongs/late night show host outrage, and finally close up coverage that is the equivalent of tragedy porn, AKA, the human stories (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). Pause and repeat for next mass shooting spree.
The only thoughts beyond Twitter is the hand-wringing about political action. Experts will weigh in. Democrats will lament. No action will actually be taken … except for Trump and his golf trophy that he dedicated to the hurricane victims. Maybe he will return to his New Jersey golf club this weekend and win a trophy for Las Vegas.
