Thoughts and Prayers and Tactical Assault Ballads

There's a common sequence of events:

• A domestic mass shooting occurs.
• People respond to it by saying “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.”
• Other people respond to that with ridicule.

There's another common sequence of events:

• A terrorist action occurs committed by least one person who has crossed a border.
• People respond to it with a Tactical Assault Ballad.
• Other people respond to that with ridicule.

Both of them follow this template:

• A horrible crime occurs.
• People might possibly respond to it by advocating one form or another of people control. (Both gun control and border control are people control disguised by a euphemism.) What's worse, those who oppose that form of people control might look hard-hearted.
• In order to forestall that, those opposed to that form of people control respond with a purely symbolic action.
• Other people respond to that with ridicule.

To make matters worse, nearly everybody will ignore the resemblance of the sequences.

Is there a version of category theory for politics?