A few years ago, Jon Lovett floated a theory that media treats Democrats like protagonists - to be challenged, accounted, and forced to be behave in growth-oriented ways - while the GOP are treated like antagonists - immutable, expected to disrupt, thematic obstacles.
Thinking about that a lot.
I don’t recall the NYT calling for Trump to step down after being convicted of 34 counts of fraud and being called by a judge at his civil trial a rapist in the common person sense
Murc's Law, "The widespread assumption that only Democrats have any agency or causal influence over American politics", has been around since at least 2017. Longer I am sure.
I think this is a partial answer to the problem, frankly. Having a shorthand for a problem- already in place in this instance!- makes it easier to call out the problem when it pops up
