Democrat narrative on violence against them fails

James Taranto:

One sign that ObamaCare is both bad and unpopular is that since its enactment--indeed, since just before its enactment--its supporters have been laboring mightily to change the subject. They're eager to talk not about their great legislative and social achievement, but about how violent, racist and all-around crazy ObamaCare opponents are. On the whole, this is a false narrative. As we noted yesterday, an effort to prove the "all-around crazy" part employed one of the shoddiest, most tendentious opinion polls we've ever seen.

There have, however, been enough reports of bad and sometimes criminal behavior, apparently by ObamaCare opponents, to build at least an anecdotal case in support of the narrative. But some of those reports in turn have fallen apart, creating an anecdotal case in support of a counternarrative--that ObamaCare supporters are engaging in a smear campaign.

Yesterday the far-left pro-ObamaCare outfit MoveOn.org sent out an email that made the following claim: "Then this week, Democrats who voted for reform began receiving death threats--one had a coffin left on his lawn and another was told snipers would kill the children of lawmakers who voted yes."

The latter story, cited in this Politico piece, was a genuine threatening phone call, as far as we can tell. But the former claim is bunk. The coffin was not a death threat, and it was not left on the congressman's lawn. Politico has the real story:

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) had a coffin placed "near his home," a spokesman said Wednesday evening.

The coffin was from a prayer vigil, and protesters say that the coffin symbolized babies who would be aborted due to the health care law and was not a threat to Carnahan. . . .

-Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the coffin was placed in front of Carnahan's house and not on his lawn.

The Puffington Host reported Saturday that "a staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor." As Cleaver is black, this claim had racial overtones. But Cleaver later gave an account to the Washington Post's Courtland Milloy that was more "say it, don't spray it" than gross assault....

...

There is more.

This appears to be part of a deliberate victims strategy by the Democrats to deal with the genuine anger at them over their ignoring the will of the people. It is a bit of political jujitsu, but it fails because it is fundamentally dishonest and will only increase the passions of their opponents to defeat them in November.