When I see a bald guy with ear rings who has clearly never been to jail, I think: prison rape fantasies. That’s what I was thinking while watching gun rights advocate and overall Republican fucktard Kevin Williamson on All In tonight. But he made a great point: the new “gun control” legislation is basically useless. This is in the context of Chris Hayes’ claim that the center of gravity of American politics is moving a bit to the left.

But even in Hayes’ theory, he notes that when it comes to economic issues—you know, the issues that affect almost everyone—there has been no progress (I’d say it is worse than that, and I’ll be discussing it tomorrow). But even when it comes to gun control, the progress is mostly illusory. And on immigration, it is perhaps worse. As I reported back in February, even if the Democrats get what they want, it will be terrible compared to the immigration law that Ronald Reagan signed.

Is this what liberalism has become? Are we so used to losing badly that standing still feels like a win? I wrote as much over the weekend. But then, I was getting at the fact that our “liberal” leaders are not really liberal and that this fact was holding us back. In this case, it’s even worse. Even if we yield all the very good evidence that the Democratic Party has abandoned the goal of working toward an equitable economy, the liberal movement is still just treading water.

I understand that liberals want to feel good about the state of the movement. I know I want to feel good about it. But I’m not willing to be deluded about it. Not only can I wait until there is something really worth celebrating, I know that we must wait. Pretending that things are going well for the liberal movement just makes us more complacent. And most important: it makes real change—Real improvement!—far less likely.

So remember that Chris Hayes! It’s okay if the rest of the MSNBC staff turn into hagiographers for Obama and the Democratic Party. But we expect more from you.