In a dramatic, closed door meeting, the owner of a renowned Mexican eatery in Hollywood expressed regret in her decision to donate $100 to the “Yes on Prop 8? campaign, but her remarks before a group of about 60 members of Los Angeles’ LGBT community fell short of an outright personal apology.

“I’m sick of heart that I’ve offended anyone in the gay community,” said Marjorie Christoffersen, co-owner of El Coyote Mexican Cafe for 17 years. “I have had, and do have family, friends, and people I work with of course who are gay…and you are treasured people to me.”

This is the brave new world of liberalism on the march. A world where traditional values are dismissed at hateful, Christians are threatened and attacked, and anyone who has an opinion other than the “politically correct” one gets hauled in front of angry crowd to explain themselves… or else.

Present day China? Soviet Union, circa 1955? Those wonderful little tribunals in Canada that haul you in for “diversity training” for daring to anger some minority-comprised grievance lobby?

Nah. Welcome to America; California specifically. Yeah, I know- California is hardly representative of all of America, thank God. But don’t kid yourself- if the raving, raging protesters marching down the Presidio had their way, all of America, from Seattle to South Florida, would get a good ol’ fashioned dose of “tolerance”.

Let’s be clear- this has nothing to do with gay marriage. This whole damn spectacle may have started after Prop 8, a measure to ban gay marriage in California, passed 53%-47%. But the catalyst doesn’t concern me as much as the reaction. These people aren’t fighting for “liberty”, or “tolerance”, or even the right to redefine a cultural and religious institution -marriage- that is thousands of years old. That fight ended on Election Day. These people are fighting republican (small “r”) principles. Sure, they want gay marriage, but what they really seek is the power to overturn an election. The thing they’re really after is the power to silence opposing viewpoints through violence and intimidation.

Think about how dangerous this is. It’s a mentality that says that if you or I don’t like how an election turns out, we get to march down the street, shout obscenities, beat the hell out of someone, and then threaten our political opponents with ostracism and economic ruin. Well y’know what? I don’t like how the presidential election turned out. How about some of us Republicans go to the inauguration and march down Constitution Ave. shouting anti-Obama slogans? What’s more, how about we all find which of our neighbors donated to Obama and have a little chat with them about it? How well do you think that would go over?

Maybe it would go something like this:

The artistic director at California’s largest nonprofit musical theater company resigned Wednesday amid protests over his donation to a campaign to ban gay marriage in the state.

Scott Eckern stepped down from his job at the California Musical Theater in Sacramento after some gay activists called for a theater boycott.

He said he is leaving “after prayerful consideration to protect the organization and to help the healing in the local theatergoing and creative community.”

Eckern said he “chose to act upon my belief that the traditional definition of marriage should be preserved” but had no idea his contribution would generate such controversy. He said his sister is a lesbian in a domestic partnership, which he understands to carry the same legal rights as marriage.

The boycott calls - led by artists including “Hairspray” composer Marc Shaiman - began after activists learned Eckern contributed $1,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign. Last week, voters approved Proposition 8, which changes the constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

This needs to be called out for what it is- fascism, pure and simple. This is a mob of angry losers telling anyone who will listen that if you don’t tow their line, there will be consequences for you. That if you cross them -if you disagree with them- you will lose your job, you will be ostracized, and you will be dragged through the streets and humiliated. This is mob-as-government; the modern equivalent of a lynch mob gathered outside the local courthouse and ready to dispense its own version of justice rather than the legally prescribed kind.

We’ve seen this before, and the end results are never pretty.

And I want everyone to take a good hard look at what side is doing it. If anyone has a right to be upset -even apocalyptic- about the election results, it’s the Republicans. Those big, mean, cold-hearted, minority-hating, war-mongering Republicans. And yet I haven’t seen a single Republican marching in the street over the election results.

Who are the biggest proponents of replacing our Republic with a mobobcracy? Those wonderful, open-minded, blissfully tolerant Democrats, many of whom have proved once and for all that they’re only tolerant of people who agree with them. Does anyone else see the delicious irony of a bunch of protesters crying about how they support “tolerance”, while simultaneously punishing and humiliating anyone who dares to differ with them? But is anyone else surprised? I’m not.

The conceit of the liberal mind knows no bounds, and we conservatives must be on guard against what a resurgent liberal majority will try to do. These freedom hating protesters (and let’s face it, they do hate freedom when it’s used to disagree with them) are the sans robe cousins of the know-it-all judges who legislate from the bench. They’re the wilder street-versions of the politicians that refuse to let citizens vote on gay marriage in Massachusetts. They’re the vulgar equivalent of every college professor and pointy-headed intellectual who has dismissed traditional values and moral absolutism as “antiquated” or “closed-minded” while extolling the virtues of moral relativism with shiny articulation but hollow wisdom.

The voices may be different, but the arguments, and the people behind them, are the same. These protests in San Francisco? They’re just the beginning. Don’t erroneously assume that we’re just fighting a political party. We are fighting a philosophy that believes that any disagreement with them must be silenced by either shame or force, and they believe that their time has come.

And if you don’t believe me, why don’t you ask one of those ever-tolerant protesters?

And there remains a distinct contingent of same-sex marriage supporters who are adamant about retribution. One is Chad Griffin, a political advisor to Hollywood executives who says, “A dollar to the yes campaign is a dollar in support of bigotry, homophobia and discrimination. There are going to be consequences. Any individual who has held homophobic views and who has gone public by writing a check, you can expect to be publicly judged. Many can expect to pay a price for a long time to come.”

LA Times

Tolerance. It’s a wonderful thing.