The indispensable Babylon Bee features a reversible bumper sticker. It can say either “Coexist” or “Resist” depending on whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican:
Mandatory Tolerance, LLC is a Santa Cruz-based internet company that manufacturers bumper stickers, T-shirts, and other merchandise for the left, offering their goods and services on the free market in exchange for money in order to end capitalism.
Their latest product is a magnetic, reusable bumper sticker that you can switch between the slogans “Coexist” and “Resist!” depending on who the president is.
“If a liberal is in office, all is well—therefore, it’s time to use the Coexist sticker to remind people that we can all get along despite our differences,” said Lou Panderson, CEO of Mandatory Tolerance. “Once a Republican gets into office, it’s on: flip that baby over to RESIST! to show people you will not stop screaming at the sky until peace and order is restored in our land.”
That’s pretty funny, and the Bee is satire. But how far off is the reversible bumper sticker from reality? Doesn’t it exemplify how “mainstream” press outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, all three broadcast television networks, CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, etc. behave? If a Democrat is in office, peace be upon the land! He may advocate punching back twice as hard and bringing guns to knife fights, but those are only metaphors. He may issue baldly unconstitutional executive orders, but what do you expect when Congress refuses to pass the desired legislation?
On the other hand, if the president is a Republican, no measures are too extreme. Antifa? An entirely responsible and relatively restrained reaction to…something. The president is carrying out his constitutional duty, and abiding by his oath office, by enforcing the nation’s immigration laws? Outrageous! Resist! The press criticizes the president, and the president criticizes right back? An affront to the First Amendment! (Which, by the way, only protects liberals. Conservatives need not apply.)
Editors and reporters at all of our major news outlets are cautiously awaiting the result of the 2020 election–well, they are trying to influence it, obviously, but in this respect they await the result–to decide whether submission to all-knowing executive authority or resistance to a hated usurper will be the order of the day. It is getting harder and harder to satirize 21st century America.
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