The optics of angry Democrat mobs banging on the doors of the Supreme Court, chasing Republicans out of restaurants, and bullying drivers on busy streets are not helpful ones for Democrats seeking votes from mainstream Americans ahead of the midterm elections, so the Democrat media complex is doing what it always does when the facts don't line up with their agenda -- they're telling you not to believe your lying eyes.

CNN spent much of the day Tuesday recasting what looks to most eyes like political mob intimidation tactics against Republicans as patriotic Americans practicing their First Amendment rights.

In separate segments, both Brooke Baldwin and Don Lemon of CNN vigorously beat back a guest's characterizations of left-wing activists as mobs.

Baldwin reacted with disdain when the Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis mentioned the mob that harassed Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his wife out of a restaurant.

“A mob is what we saw in Charlottesville, Virginia, two Augusts ago. A mob is not what we saw chasing — I’m not saying what they did was right,” Baldwin argued.

(Note: Only liberals are allowed to define what a mob is -- people on the right don't get that privilege. Circa 2009 to 2012, the liberal media cast the peaceful Tea Party as the m-word. Circa 2016 to 2018, they went on to label Trump supporters attending Trump rallies as dangerous mobs -- which was the exact opposite of the truth. Meanwhile, left-wing political agitators who actually engage in violent, intimidating, mob-like behavior are said to be simply practicing their constitutional rights.)

Later in the day, Lemon became somewhat unglued when guest Lewis again brought up the example of Cruz and his wife being hounded by a left-wing mob out of the restaurant.

“Don, if they started following you around a restaurant and running you out of places ...” Lewis began. But Lemon interjected, saying, “But that doesn’t mean that people don’t get to object. That’s your right as an American to object. It’s covered in the First Amendment. It’s like the first one!”

When Lewis continued to make the case that there is a difference between free speech and bullying a man and his wife into fleeing a public restaurant, Lemon started screaming.

Will you let me finish? Matt, please! Let me finish,” Lemon shouted.

“Bring it on. Mind if I have a drink?” Lewis asked.

“You can do whatever you want. You can leave the show if you want,” Lemon fired back.

“I’m not going to do that,” Lewis said.

“Shut up and let me do it,” Lemon snarled.

With the floor to himself, Lemon launched into a full-throated defense of mob action:

“In the Constitution, you can protest whenever and wherever you want. It doesn’t tell you that you can’t do it in a restaurant, that you can’t do it on a football field. It doesn’t tell you that you can’t do it on a cable news — you can do it wherever you want.”

“To call people mobs because they are exercising their constitutional right is just beyond the pale,” Lemon said before cutting to a commercial.

It's not just CNN that is furiously fighting the deadly "mob" label.

The Washington Post's Robert Costa also got in on the action, reporting that racist  Republicans have been working to recast Democratic protesters as part of an angry mob "for the benefit of white voters, particularly men."

 The characterization evokes fear of an unknown and out-of-control mass of people, and it taps into grievances about the nation’s fast-moving cultural and demographic shifts that Republicans say are working against them. With its emphasis on the impact on traditional values and white voters, particularly men, it strikes the same notes as earlier Trump-fanned attention to immigrants, MS-13 gang members and African American football players protesting police treatment of young black men.

This is gaslighting in its purest, most diabolical form.

Those angry, violent, rioting left-wing mobs we've been seeing for the past couple of years -- often financed by left-wing billionaires like George Soros to destabilize the government -- are just a figment of our overactive imaginations, the smart set in Washington want us to believe.

This is the narrative in the face of the increasingly violent agitation from the left we've all been witnessing since the 2016 campaign. 

This is a tricky tightrope act for Democrats, because at the same time they are denying that Soros-funded left-wing mobs are trying to destabilize the government, former top government officials are actually dog-whistling for that very thing.

“It is time for us as Democrats to be as tough as they are, to be as dedicated as they are, to be as committed as they are,” former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said. “Michelle [Obama] says ‘when they go low, we go high.’ No. When they go low we kick them,” he said.

Here is a recent example of this plan in action:

Additionally, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a recent CNN interview: "You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for."

Add to that Senator Cory Booker's plea to Democrat activists to get in the face of members of Congress and, of course, Rep. Maxine Waters' call for supporters to harass Trump officials in public, and a coordinated political strategy seems to emerge.

As Hot Air's John Sexton points out, it is almost certainly not a coincidence that these top Democrats are embracing "in your face" incivility toward Republicans with remarkably similar political messaging.

I doubt it has escaped the notice of either Hillary Clinton or Eric Holder that grassroots Democrats are now embracing a new confrontational approach to their opponents. As Rep. Maxine Waters said, if you see Trump officials in a restaurant or a gas station, “you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” This is a blunt, anti-civility message and some on the left have denounced it. But it appears party leaders are now giving their activists approval to go all in with only a month left before the election.

What they hope to accomplish with the constant unhinged agitation is anyone's guess, but it sure is making their media allies' jobs* harder.

*Many in the MSM see their job as helping Democrats win elections.