On Wednesday, Chick fil-A set a sales record, according to CEO Dan Cathy. That is the same CEO whose opposition to same-sex marriage prompted calls to boycott the business. Several liberal mayors, including Boston's Tom Menino, said Chickfil-A restaurants were not welcome in their cities (even though Catholic churches, which also oppose same-sex marriage, are). Yet again, a left-wing attack on the idea that marriage should remain between men and women backfired, prompting exactly the opposite of the intended reaction.

As voters across the country have resoundingly opposed same-sex marriage in response to liberal attempts to impose it, often by judicial fiat, thousands upon thousands of Americans on Wednesday dined at Chick-filA to express their support for traditional marriage and their disgust at liberal politicians who would bully business owners who hold religious views that differ from theirs.

Liberals are the defenders and champions of tolerance, or so they tell us. And yet should a business owner dare express an opinion that contradicts left-wing orthodoxy, the boycott commences immediately. Last year, Concord developer and well-known Republican Steve Duprey said he thought teachers should not have tenure. The New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Association called on its members to boycott Duprey's businesses.

Also last year, several Littleton business owners spoke in favor of cutting the town budget. Thirteen businesses were subsequently boycotted by members of the State Employees Association.

In Wisconsin last year, the Wisconsin State Employees Union and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees warned businesses that they would be boycotted if they did not support the unions' position on collective bargaining.

There is a word for this: intolerance.

The United States is still the land of the free, at least for the time being. Freedom requires the tolerance of dissenting views. Americans can disagree about religion and politics and still do business with each other, even get along — as long as the actually tolerant Americans continue to defy the bully tactics of political activists and office holders.