There are a lot of absurdities in American politics, but the establishment meltdown this week over pro-choice protests has to be somewhere near the top of the list.

For the past few days, voices have been tripping over themselves to register their disapproval of protesters peacefully demonstrating outside the houses of the judges who have snatched away the right to abortion. It’s come from Republicans — like Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who warned it was “an attempt to replace the rule of law with the rule of mobs” — and it’s come from Democrats, like Connecticut senator Chris Murphy, who denounced nonexistent threats of violence from the movement. The Washington Post editorial board weighed in, suggesting the protests weren’t legal, and that they were akin to “totalitarianism.” Even the White House, courageous as ever, condemned the “violence, threats, or vandalism” that never happened, insisting that judges mustn’t have “concern for their personal safety.”

In these and other statements, the establishment seems to be conjuring up some kind of violent movement of extremists willing to threaten, destroy, and kill to achieve their political ends. They seem, in other words, to be conjuring up the antiabortion movement.