Editor’s Note: Each week we cross-post an excerpt of Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com.

There’s a tension between the Obama administration and the progressive movement, but it’s not the one mainstream media have been describing or that the White House seems to perceive.

Last week’s America’s Future Now conference in Washington prompted numerous stories about "demoralized activists" directing their anger at the president and Democratic Party leadership. Dana Milbank’s June 9 column was among those that promoted the "liberals eat their own" storyline. He wrote: "For 17 months, anger at President Obama and congressional Democrats has been pooling on the left. On Tuesday morning, it spilled onto the floor of an Omni Shoreham ballroom and splashed all over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

Yet what’s happening on the left isn’t the equivalent of the anti-incumbent anger on the right. Most progressives support Obama and want his agenda to succeed. At the same time, progressives have come to a realization.

Read the rest of Katrina’s column at the WashingtonPost.com.