What Kerry Eleveld says here is basically what I said on Slog a couple of weeks ago—only Kerry says it better, smarter, and longer:

Maybe it's because we were tired of paying the same taxes and not being able to pursue our happiness with equal fervor. Maybe it's because for decades we had been told by Democrats, "Elect us and we'll help you," yet we had only seen discriminatory measures like "Don't ask, Don't tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act enacted into law. Maybe it's because once your intelligence has been insulted flagrantly enough and your humanity denigrated deeply enough, you've got nothing left to lose. Whatever it was, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans had had enough.

And that's why LGBT activists started handcuffing themselves to the fence that forms the perimeter around the White House, showing up at presidential events and sometimes shouting down Obama—even at fundraisers for progressive allies like California Senator Barbara Boxer. In fact, nothing seems to provoke the president more than being challenged by the progressive base. After studying Obama as a member of the press corps for nearly four years, the only time I have seen the fire of true indignation flare in his eyes is when he feels as though the left is questioning the authenticity of his progressive ideals.

To be candid, not all gay rights advocates agreed with these tactics—some found them unseemly. But in retrospect, "Don't ask, Don't tell" was essentially the only piece of legislation passed during President Obama's first two years to address the concern of a specific progressive constituency.

And now organized labor, immigration reform advocates, and environmentalists are taking their cues from LGBT activists: it's not enough to elect Democrats and hope for the best. You have to get in their faces—and stay there—after the election. You have to make not delivering on their promises more politically costly/headachey than delivering on 'em could ever be. It's like FDR said to his allies: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

The White House told LGBT activists that they had no choice but to defend DOMA and delay on DADT. But we got out there, got in their faces, and made 'em do the DADT repeal and stop defending DOMA:

The administration would tell us that they had no choice—they had to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). They didn't have the executive authority to change the trajectory of the issue alone, they said. And they did defend it. For two years, they filed brief after brief in support of the law only to be skewered time and again by the blogosphere, grass roots activists and even the mainstream press. Eventually, they realized that there was a bigger political cost to defending the constitutionality of the law than there was to abandoning the effort. After Obama earned great adulation for repealing "Don't ask, Don't tell"—there was virtually no downside—White House advisors decided LGBT equality had more popular support than they had thought and rightly concluded that getting a black eye every time they filed a new brief defending the offensive law hadn't been worth the headache.

So it also wasn't particularly surprising to some LGBT activists when the president and his advisors discovered that they did indeed have the "prosecutorial discretion" to suspend deportations of immigrant youths who pose no threat to public safety.

Some on the left believed that supporting this president meant keeping your mouth shut when he disappointed, stalled, or delayed. But the Obama administration benefited politically from the DADT repeal that they basically were forced to move up and move on. People who chained themselves to the White House were not trying to "bring down this President." Far from it. And far from being the enemies of the Obama administration, Dan Choi, GetEQUAL, SLDN, the bloggers, et al, turned out to be the best friends the Obama White House had. They could've used more friends like these on the left. And if Dems had had a few more friends who were willing to get in their faces and make demands before the 2010 midterms—if a few more groups in the Dem base had gotten in their faces—maybe Obama would have a few more accomplishments that he could point to now that he's running for reelection. Just sayin'.

And Kerry's post is great—bigger, longer, smarter!—and you should go read the whole thing.