This topic makes me think of many things that may sound trite at first such as:
The perfect is the enemy of the good/better.
A diffference in strategy is not necessarily a difference in objective.
Someone not your enemy is not necessarily your friend and just because they're not your friend doesn't mean they're your enemy.
As I pointed out in another thread, we have made massive progress with CC as shown by these maps:
http://www.gun-nuttery.com/rtc.php
I am obviously a supporter of OC, but I do see some wisdom in pushing CC first. Women generally are more anti-gun than men. The fastest growing group of firearm owners are women and the number of women CC continues to grow. Which women are more likely to react negatively to OC? The woman who has never even shot a gun or the woman who has a 380 sitting in her purse or on her hip? People who are marginal about seeing OC are ok with CC. Increasing CC helps normalize the ownership, use and posesssion of firearms. Normalizing citizen gun ownership and carry is part of our oft stated reason for OC.
Certainly most of us would like to see national constitutional carry. But we have even made progress on this front. That's not perfect but it certainly is better. I don't see being able to OC in NYC or SF in my lifetime, but I do see MO becoming a gold star OC state, maybe even constitutional carry. I also think it not impossible that I would CC most anywhere under some type, even if limited, national CC reciprocity.
I also think of the whole Starbucks thing. Many of us were concerned that some of the over exhuberance in "supporting" Starbucks was a mistake as their libertarian "not our enemy" was confused with their being our friend. That obviously backfired to some extent, although I do give credit to Starbucks for asking for restraint rather than going with a national ban. That whole thing was an unforced error on OC supporters. By the same token, the NRA, while not always (to some not often) OC's friend, they also are not necessarily an enemy. Political realities in some states means either getting nothing or gettingCC with stupid restrictions. But everywhere we get CC, the blood in the street fantasies of the anti-2A crowd are proven to be nonsense and we almost always end up slowly loosening up the CC restrictions. Several states moved into the OC column to varying degrees. The NRA wasn't necessarily an ally through the entire fight, but once CC was well established and without need of further immediate support, they were not necessarily the enemy of moving the bar towards more 2A.
The bigger the organization, the more compromise they need to make because of diversity of membership. The NRA is quite large and that's their political reality. Also, they don't have an unlimited war chest and have to pick and choose what they deem the best bang for the buck for their average membership. Not all 5 mill will agree, but not all will disagree either.
We need to find common ground where we can, fight fairly with each other when we can't and keep the common aspects of our goals always in mind.