According to the U.S. news media, Donald Trump is a dangerous extremist whose rhetoric is inciting violence at his rallies. The protestors are innocent as lambs, gentle people who are being violently assaulted by Trump supporters. Trump's jack-booted white-trash constituency is mercilessly punching and kicking anyone who dares to object to his inhumane racist and xenophobic policies.

This moralistic fairy tale is utter nonsense. It is the exact opposite of the truth. As Trump himself has pointed out, these "protestors" are more aptly described as "disruptors." Their intent is not to exercise their own First Amendment rights but to silence people they disagree with.

Trump's rallies across the U.S. have attracted tens of thousands of people. Before they were intentionally disrupted, these gatherings were entirely peaceful. Trump's supporters are not "white trash." On the contrary, they're the very salt of the earth:  the law-abiding and hard-working people who pay their taxes and make this country work. These people want nothing more than to be left alone and participate peacefully in the democratic process of self-governance.

The saying is that the exception proves the rule. But the news media have made the exception into the rule. Masters of deceit and propaganda, they long ago discarded any pretense of objectivity. In North Carolina last March 9, an elderly white Trump supporter struck a young black man being escorted out of a Trump rally by law enforcement. The video recording of this incident has been shown more times than the Rodney King beating. One night, NBC news literally replayed it three times within fifteen seconds. The implication is that Trump is guilty by association. This is an absurd logical fallacy. A man is not guilty by association. And if we are to judge Mr. Trump by the behavior of his supporters, why choose the one person who became violent? Would it not be more reasonable to base our assessment on the tens of thousands of people who remained peaceful?

Who would have thought such a bad man could win so many elections? Mr. Trump's detractors have run through the entire English lexicon of insulting epithets. Perhaps they implicate themselves by protesting too much. If Mr. Trump suffers from any fault, it is a refusal to function as a punching bag. Some consider this to be a sterling virtue in a Presidential candidate.

If people want to oppose Donald Trump's candidacy they have a thousand ways to do so. Instead of disrupting Trump's rallies, they could hold their own rallies (would anyone attend?). They could write editorials, letters to the editor, and make comments on the internet. They could march up-and-down on the street holding up signs denouncing Trump. They might even try (gasp) voting. Everyone in our society has a multitude of ways of freely expressing themselves.

But the protestors do not want to merely express themselves. They want to impose their political views by force. If they don't like what you're saying, they're going to shut you down and shut you up. In Phoenix last March 19, protestors blocked a major highway leading to a Trump rally. This was not a peaceful or lawful act. It was a forceful way of stopping people who merely wanted to peacefully assemble and work for democratic change. Not only were Trump's supporters affected, so was anyone who happened to be traveling on that highway. This included people with medical emergencies desperately trying to reach a hospital.

The political season is just warming up. We have witnessed the beginning of the violence, not the end. So let's be entirely clear about what is happening here. The people who are disrupting Donald Trump's rallies are not merely a threat to the Trump campaign. They are thugs and criminals who are endangering everyone's right to free expression and democratic governance.

Dr. Deming is professor of arts and sciences at the University of Oklahoma, and the author of Science and Technology in World History (McFarland, 2010, 2012, 2016).