I think an expectation somehow coalesced for the Democrats, maybe around 2012, that the possibility of electorally meaningful dissent from the right would soon be neutralized by a combination of bureaucracy, demographics, the courts, and decisive teleological forces (the Arc of History), and that these final steps of "progressivism" could be helped along by a little illiberalism - for "the greater good", of course.
I suspect that the deflation of this forlorn hope in part explains the unhinged rage of Democrats like Jay Jones, who not only fantasized about murdering a Republican opponent for office, but his children as well.
It's my considered opinion that by any reasonable standard of ‘normal politics’ this is aberrant behavior that would be hard to justify, but it hasn’t been disavowed by the Democrat Party AFAIK.
I think the takeaway could be that a lot of Democrats talked themselves into the expectation of an incipient ascent to power beyond what normal electoral politics grants and a lot of the hysterics about ‘fascism,’ ‘authoritarianism,’ and ‘no Kings’ are just projection of their own demons.
I think you can take this premise and draw a line that connects everything from ‘Russiagate’ to the Virginia AG election to whatever they’re trying to engineer next.