It seems to me sometimes that those of us on The Left (both the Professionals and the rank amateurs like myself) are a lot like chickens with the their heads cut off: there's a lot of frantic motion, but not much direction. As a middle-aged liberal, I've seen the waves of the political zeitgeist move back and forth, but the trend has always been forward. Perhaps it's my maturity that allows me to celebrate those small victories without getting upset that it was "one small step" rather than "one giant leap".

What I find disheartening is when I find myself at odds with people with whom I share ideologies because I am not going to get outraged over minor losses. Setbacks are normal. Long-range vision is needed, and the realization that although our contributions may not take us as far as we would like, the "progress" that progressives seem to want is the process, not the destination. Yet increasingly I find that my celebration of the small victories and the lack of outrage over the small losses brands me with epithets such as "sell-out", "Obamabot", "corporatist", "centrist", "moderate", etc., when none of these are true, and all are harmful toward achieving our goals.

There's also the automatic assumption of the worst, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the petitions for redress for slights that don't exist. The disheartening news of the demise of Keith Olbermann's show this past Friday is a perfect example of that. The immediate reaction was the cynical knowing that he MUST have been fired by MSNBC as part of some backroom deal with Comcast. Immediately, petitions sprang up, one even stating that:

The truth is a little harder for his supporters to take:

Yes, it was Keith Olbermann who called it quits, possibly because he was ready to put the show to rest, and Jeff Zucker - Olbermann's biggest supporter - saw his position eliminated as part of the merger. We won't know for sure until Keith tells us, and - based on the NY Times article - he won't be able to for a certain period of time.

I've often criticized Palin supporters for being sucked into her cult of personality. Sadly, that seems to be the case with Keith Olbermann and other Progressive darlings. Take for instance the problems that progressive fraud Jane Hamsher had trying to visit the Wiki-leaker Bradly Manning at Quantico:

Perhaps Jane should have done a little research into what's required when visiting a military base. Instead, she makes claims that are unverifiable in an effort to make a martyr of herself. Her acolytes dutifully do just that, and react with yet more petitions and outrage.

Another favorite personality for Progressives is Julian Assange, the wiki-leaker-in-chief. How many Progressives seem willing to overlook his rather Neanderthal attitudes toward women because they think he was "set up" by the CIA (rather than the more mundane likelihood that he was set up by a jilted lover)? Wikileaks can operate just fine without Assange, yet progressives seem quite attached to what appears to me to be a rather narcissistic figurehead.

Raine and I have often discussed in private that the right and left extremes are getting SO ideologically focused, that they will eventually curl around and meet up on the opposite side of reality. That apparently is coming true, as progressive darling Ralph Nader and Tea Party darling Ron Paul are creating an alliance. Although I agree with Ron Paul on exactly one issue (reducing the U.S. military commitment to the rest of the world), his stance on women's rights is abhorrent. Are progressives going to overlook that? Will he suddenly become "one of us" because Ralph Nader is going to be working with him? We shall see. Jane Hamsher has also worked with Ron Paul (see "fraud" link, above), and no one has blinked.

So while the Progressives - who seem so addicted to outrage - follow their ADD approach to politics, fighting battles that can't be won, I have to wonder what their long term strategy is. Assuming the worst for any story where you don't know all the facts only makes you look foolish when the facts come out. So does automatically beatifying questionable personalities struck down by imagined conspiracies. Ostracizing and shunning liberals because they fail a litmus test on some particular issue only isolates your ever-shrinking base, especially while climbing into bed with right-wing extremists - the ends do not justify the means.

It's time to grow up people. It's time to look at the long game, and realize that you won't win every time, and some people may go down along the way. Every one of these personalities I mentioned knew that was a possibility when they got into the game. You can best honor their work by focusing on the causes, not the persons.