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In the past few weeks, progressives have gone into paroxysms of pleasure over the results of two special Congressional elections. In Kansas, James Thompson managed to LOSE by over eight thousand votes. In Georgia, Joel Ossoff found a way to fight another day by forcing a runoff election in June. Alas, the way that progressives count votes, both of these developments are counted as "moral victories". However, in the real world of politics, the one result is a defeat and the other is still a pipe dream.

I hate raining on the progressive parade, I really do. They get so excited over moral victories, sort of like small children on Christmas morning, jumping up and down in anticipation and excitement. It's kind of heart warming to see really. Their little cheeks get all red and rosy and their smiles could light up a room. But, at the end of the day, the sad fact is that Republican Ron Estes is now sitting in Congress and Jim Thompson is back practicing law or whatever else he does in his spare time. While Joel Ossoff can take some consolation in the fact that he came in first in the Georgia special election, he faces a steep uphill climb if he expects to address himself as Congressman Ossoff.

Oh, it IS gratifying to be competitive in Congressional districts that had previously been considered lost causes just six months ago, but losing is still losing and there are no consolation prizes in politics. Unlike the Special Olympics, in politics there are winners and there are losers and the winners invariably say deal while the losers just say cut the cards. As the late Tip O'Neill used to say, "politics ain't bean bag!".

There is a hard political lesson to be learned from conservatives. You constantly have to keep your eyes on the prize. There is no "off season" in politics. While progressives may be doing a happy dance that Joel Ossoff got 48.1% of the vote, conservatives are spending THEIR time planning for the rest of the elections coming up in 2017, the 2018 mid-terms, and the 2020 general election. They're recruiting candidates from a large bench of office holders who already know how to win an election and who have been promised they will have whatever resources they need in order to run a successful campaign.

The problem with the progressive approach to politics is that they view politics like a game, a more advanced form of three dimensional chess. Conservatives see politics as war and they will do anything and everything in order to win it. Yes, it's true, this approach takes all the joy and sheer spontaneity OUT of politics, but it DOES have its rewards. Republicans now control every branch of the federal government, and as bad as things may seem for Republicans right now, it is more than likely that they will dominate the political arena for many years to come.

This is the harsh reality of politics. It's not the fantasy world of meaningless polls and impractical pipe dreams that progressives seem so eager to occupy. It is hard and tough and mean. It's definitely a big boy's game, not some playground confection like Ring Around the Rosie. Unless and until progressives get their heads out of the sand and become fully engaged in the grim reality of the political world, they will be treated to moral victory after moral victory until they're moral victoried out of existence!

More here:
Progressives, "Moral Victory" Is Just A Euphemism For Defeat! - ChicagoNow (blog)