We’ve been hearing a great deal about fascism in this election, with the left making increasingly unhinged warnings about how Donald Trump will destroy Americans’ freedom to waste their lives watching pornography and force them to have children, while in the process of taking an axe to “our democracy” itself.

This seems, however, to be an increasingly obvious case of leftists resorting to their familiar tactic of accusing their opponents of what they themselves are actually doing. Over and over, we see leftists trying to intimidate people into being afraid to express views that oppose them, or even to allow their foes to have a fair hearing. So once again: who’s the fascist? They’re finding out at the McDonald’s that famously played host to Donald Trump.

What the Daily Caller reported Thursday was drearily predictable: “In the wake of Trump’s widely-publicized campaign stop at the ‘Golden Arches’” franchise in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, “Yelp disabled reviews for the location amid a flood of negative comments, and the franchise’s owner retained private security to ensure the safety of employees and patrons in response to threats made against the eatery.” 

Oh, for pete’s sake. Threats? Remember that when Trump made his celebrated appearance at Mickey D’s, the corporation issued a balanced and generous statement, saying: “As we’ve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation in this election cycle. While we’ve not sought this, it’s a testament to how much McDonald’s resonates with so many Americans. McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President.”

McDonald’s said that Harris was as welcome as Trump was, and added: “Though we are not a political brand, we’ve been proud to hear former President Trump’s love for McDonald’s and Vice President Harris’s fond memories working under the Arches,” as fictional as the latter may have been.

That wasn’t good enough for some of Harris’ fanatical cadres. Jim Worthington, who led  Pennsylvania’s delegation to the Republican National Convention, said that the Feasterville McDonald’s had  gotten threatening calls and social media messages, which it took seriously enough to hire armed guards.

Worthington also noted that the McDonald’s outlet that Trump made famous was not the only recipient of such treatment: “The individual that owns the franchise went out of his way, and you never know what the reaction is going to be from people that don’t agree with hosting something political. For me, I’ve had experience where they actually boycotted my business because of my support and it cost me millions of dollars in lost revenue. It takes a lot of guts to do that. I don’t know how his business has been impacted or not impacted, but I just wanted to show my appreciation.”

Worthington and others did so by going out of their way to defy the threats and patronize the Feasterville McDonald’s last Wednesday night. Worthington added that Trump supporters were not allowing the franchise to twist in the wind: “the community is really embracing it, and a lot of people have come in here since Sunday just to patronize the restaurant…A lot of people anticipated [a boycott] would happen, because that is typical for some Democratic supporters to do, but [the business] hasn’t been hurt.” 

One of the patriots who was there last Wednesday stated: “I heard that [the McDonald’s owner] was getting hassled by people on the other side, the Harris people, and they were threatening him, and they were going on social media, Yelp in particular, and they were saying, ‘Oh, the food stinks and it’s got diseases,’ or whatever. So I heard that, and then finally, I just heard through the grapevine that they were going to do this tonight, so I came.”

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Another stated: “The sad thing is, the owner here had threats against his business and his employees, and it definitely wasn’t the Trump supporters that were doing it. That’s a big reason why I am here.” A third said: “I heard about all the negativity that people were showering upon this particular McDonald’s, for all the positive things that Trump was showing that he was trying to do. What happened to this McDonald’s is not deserved, all the negativity that is being showered upon it. It’s American-owned and locally-owned. So these people don’t deserve all that. You have working Americans here, they’re trying to make a living just like everybody else in America.”

Yes, they are. As far as the left is concerned, however, nobody in America is allowed to make a living unless they have made it clear that they are not a threat to the left’s political and cultural hegemony. If the elites think you do constitute such a threat, large or small, you will be crushed. Jim Worthington and his fellow patriots who showed up at the Feasterville McDonald’s to defy these fascists, and for doing so, they deserve the gratitude of every free American.