High-profile progressives across the country have been humiliating themselves over a chain of chicken sandwich shops.

It would seem that President Obama's words from 2009 apply here: big-city Democratic mayors are "all wee wee'd up"!

It's embarrassing to witness their maligning antics.  These are not the voices of tolerance and intellectualism.  These are the rants of bullies with totalitarian tendencies. 

I am gay.  Given their druthers, it seems that Mayor Rahm Emanuel would like me to stay away from Chicago; Mayor Thomas Menino would forbid me from wandering near Boston's Freedom Trail; and Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco would prefer me to remain at least forty miles outside the City by the Bay.  Why?  Because I disagree with the notion of same-sex marriage. 

Their contempt is reserved for conservatives and conservatism.  These members of the Political Aristocracy indict and condemn the commonsense wisdom, values, and goodwill of Main Street, USA. 

Consider this: voters in 31 states have rejected same-sex marriage at the ballot box.  Clearly, tens of millions of Americans are not welcome in these cities.  And heaven knows what fate might await those small businessmen and businesswomen dwelling within these city borders who disagree with their mayor's values.  They will, no doubt, be asked to pack up and leave.

Let's face it: only a very small minority of people are responsible for the institution of same sex-marriage in the states where it has now become law.  The change in law was accomplished by judges and through interest group persuasion of legislators, fortified by intense media pressure.

The issue with Chick-fil-A is not that they have discriminatory hiring or serving practices when it comes to gays and lesbians.  At issue is a simple statement that Chick-fil-A's president made concerning his opposition to the notion of same-sex marriage.  And for that, he and his company have been pilloried.  Yet for all but a handful of states and the District of Columbia, that's exactly what same-sex marriage is: a notion -- one which has mostly been widely rejected. 

Last week, Mayor Ed Lee tweeted: "Closest #ChickFilA to San Francisco is 40 miles away & I strongly recommend that they not try to come any closer."

It's conceivable that Mayor Lee would also want to oust Wendy's Restaurants from his city.  Why?  Wendy's strongly advocates for adoption, the arch-enemy of abortion, progressives' favorite sector of the economy.

In a letter to Chick-fil-A's President Dan Cathy, Bean Town's mayor chided: 

I was angry to learn on the heels of your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in Boston[.] ... There is no place for discrimination on Boston's Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.

Yet Mayor Menino's own words resound with prejudice and intolerance.  It seems that under this mayor's administration, the nation's "Cradle of Liberty" is soon to become a coffin.

The Windy City's mayor declared: 

Chick-fil-A's values are not Chicago values. They're not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members ... What the CEO has said as it relates to gay marriage and gay couples is not what I believe, but more importantly, it's not what the people of Chicago believe. We just passed legislation as it relates to civil union and my goal and my hope ... is that we now move on recognizing gay marriage. I do not believe that the CEO's comments ...  reflects who we are as a city.

By his own standards, Chicago legislators aren't welcome within their own city limits because they have not yet embraced same-sex marriage.  Perhaps they should should engage in self-deportation until they come to their senses.

The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto recently identified the crux of the problem with the national debate: "The left has been winning this argument mostly because the range of acceptable views on the right has been narrowing. But the assault on free speech and religious liberty is also widening it on the left."

Chief among those assaulting free speech and liberty are the nation's White Male-Dominated Democratic Power Elites: Mayors Emanuel, Menino, and Lee.

These mayors are not equality and fairness superheroes.  Quite the contrary: their words reveal vitriolic opposition to free speech, free thought, and free markets, while dismissing the importance of state ballot initiatives.  Their actions reveal the vehemence of their political opportunism as they seek to create yet another captive minority constituency by setting in place a permanent antipathy which they hope to continue to milk for money and votes for decades to come.

Interestingly, if their words are taken at face value, I would be banned from their cities while they would presumably roll out the red carpet for former Vice President Dick Cheney, who is an advocate for same-sex marriage.

The national debate about same-sex marriage is far from over, yet progressives would prefer to clamp down on any form of debate about the issue.  It's startling that these three mayors feel so free to condemn so many millions of their fellow countrymen. 

This is the hubris of our political class, dividing America in the name of political opportunism.