When are Thoughts and Prayers Ever Enough?

When Republican policies fail—and they always do—their fallback position is as predictable as it is infuriating: they appeal to the Almighty. You hear it after every school shooting when children are gunned down in their classrooms. They send “thoughts and prayers” as if divine intervention is an acceptable substitute for actual legislation. Over time, this passive surrender to horror normalizes it, conditioning society to accept the unacceptable.

So here we are.

But it’s not just mass shootings that elicit this vapid response. The same divine hand-waving applies to economic crises. Case in point: Elon Musk’s DOGE team just obliterated tens of thousands of government jobs in one fell swoop. The fallout? People in Missouri—some who had spent their entire careers in public service—were suddenly jobless. When confronted by an outraged crowd outside a coffee shop in Belton, Republican Representative Mark Alford delivered this gem: “God has a plan and purpose for your life.”

The crowd did not take it well.

It turns out that when people lose their jobs through no fault of their own, they’re not particularly comforted by platitudes about God’s mysterious ways. They’d rather have a paycheck. Or at least a politician willing to acknowledge their suffering without shrugging it off as an act of divine will.

But in America, God has become the backstop for abject political failure.

The Insoucience of the Elite

While millions of Americans struggle to pay rent, buy groceries, and keep the lights on, the wealthy elite gaze down from their ivory towers with mild irritation. “Can’t they just get a job?” they ask, as if jobs are magically materializing out of the ether. “The national debt is too high,” they complain. “It might start affecting my investments.”

Missouri Republicans, never ones to let a crisis go to waste, are doing their part by advancing Senate Bill 8, a masterclass in cruelty. This bill would slash unemployment benefits, tying their duration to the state’s unemployment rate. Under current conditions, that means cutting assistance from 20 weeks to just 9. You read that right; while people lose their jobs, their financial backstop is cut in half. And then some.

Yes, it’s cruel. It’s damn cruel.

But this is what Republicans do. And what are Democrats doing in response? Well, that’s where disappointment rules the day.

The Democratic Shrug: “What Do You Want Us to Do?”

To be fair, there are some Democrats stepping up. A handful of them are fighting. But the party as a whole needs a lot of work.

During President Trump’s recent joint address to Congress, Democratic lawmakers held up tiny protest signs shaped like paddles. Yes, you read that right. Paddles. Because nothing strikes fear into the heart of fascism like wimpy paddles made of cardstock.

When asked why the Democratic response has been so anemic, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sighed, “It’s their government. What leverage do we have?”

Oh, I don’t know, Hakeem. Maybe act like the opposition party? Maybe stop treating “decorum” like it’s the last lifeboat on the Titanic? Perhaps you should take a page from history and recognize that rights are never handed out freely—they are fought for, tooth and nail, by people who refuse to back down.

While Democratic leadership sits around debating whether to write a strongly worded letter, the people are taking matters into their own hands. Street protests are growing. Resistance is mounting. Because, at the end of the day, working people are waking up to a brutal truth:

Nobody is coming to save us. Not the government. Not corporate America. And, frankly, not even God.

Two Parties, Two Destinies

Regarding the elephant in the room, the Democratic Party is frustrating, infuriating, and spineless at times. But it is not beyond redemption. The party still responds—albeit reluctantly—to pressure from the people. If you push hard enough, scream loud enough, and refuse to let up, you can drag Democrats out of their storm shelters where decorum rules, kicking and screaming toward progress.

Republicans, on the other hand, are beyond saving. They have wandered so far down the proverbial rabbit hole that they now exist in a political “Alice in MAGAland” where up is down, alternative facts rule the day, and reality is whatever Dear Leader says it is. They aren’t just misguided—they are fully unmoored from the real world, floating through an alternate dimension where Trump won in 2020, global warming is a hoax, and cutting taxes for billionaires somehow helps the working class.

Currently, they cannot be reasoned with, negotiated with, or changed until they purge the cult-like mentality that has consumed them. That could take a generation.

The Fight is in the Streets

So, here we are. A rogue element seeking to destroy the working class, an opposition that’s too polite to fight, and a ruling party that thinks God is their chief policy advisor. If you’ve read my previous article on the Frankfurt School, you know this didn’t happen by accident. The ruling class has long relied on keeping people passive, disengaged, and exhausted. They’ve created a citizenry that is so consumed with fighting culture wars that it won’t fight back. And meanwhile, the powerful rob them blind.

But that passivity is fading. People are waking up.

The tide is turning—not in the halls of Congress, but in the streets. That’s where real change happens. That’s where democracy is won or lost.

History is our witness. This is our time. This is our fight.