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Churchill: “In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.”

These days are not easy ones for conservatives - - - and we are all prone to wince when candidates representing our expected conservative home, the Republican Party, trumpet positions at variance with what we had believed to be established principles.

Both Michelle Malkin here and John Derbyshire here fear the worst about the presumptive Republican nominee’s immigration policy. A more optimistic Larry Kudlow here sees progress in the Arizona senator’s new energy rhetoric.

But Rush Limbaugh has some down-to-earth words that may help us put all this campaign “triangulation” and posturing in perspective.

In his June 4, 2008 “A Pep Talk for Conservatives,” you can read some home truths:

“One of the things about this whole discussion that sort of gnaws away at me is how focused we are on what’s going on in Washington here. Now, I understand there’s a logical reason for it. It’s a presidential race, and we would love to have somebody leading the country, articulating our values, and inspiring the American people. That’s not going to happen. We have got to face it. As conservatives, we are not going to have an inspirational leader articulating our values, inspiring the American people. Thus, therefore, we are going to have to inspire ourselves. We are going to have to lead ourselves — and we’ve done this.”

 

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“At some point, when this is all over, when this election season is all over, what we’re going to have to realize here is something that’s always true, regardless who’s in the White House: We have the power to make ourselves content. We have the power to pursue happiness on our own without regard to who’s in Washington, realizing that Washington is going to be a huge obstacle. It’s just going to require more fortitude from all of us to work past it, to work harder, to overcome the obstacles that are going to be placed in our way.”

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“This global warming bill, which is theirs — and John Warner’s, but the Democrats are the ones running it through — is a great example of what they’re going to do. The whole global warming hoax debate is an example of what’s ahead.”

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“So what we’re really up against here is a party apparatus that does not have the same objectives. Inside Washington — I’m not talking about the state parties. The state parties are whole different animals. And that’s why I say, and I’ve gotta go real quickly here: Focus on the people in your local government, state legislatures, governorships, that’s where the conservative farm team is. Bobby Jindal is an example, from Louisiana. That’s where they are, find ‘em, support ‘em, promote ‘em, make ‘em confident because that’s where the next cycle of the fix will lie.”

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“So when you think about what you can do with all these obstacles, like somebody in the White House we disagree with, it’s really not much of an obstacle when you think of what other people have faced and lost and have to overcome. So, we just have to continue to make America great in spite of who happens to be leading the damn country. We’ve shown that we can do it in the past, which means we can keep doing it.” (Underscoring Forum’s throughout.)

Click here for the entire Limbaugh post, well worth weighing in its entirety.

Classical scholar and military historian Victor Davis Hanson gets Rush right here:

“In an era when talentless authors sell few books after mega-advances, high-paid media people tank ratings, athletes get millions for hitting under .300, and CEOs take big stock options as they leave in failure, add Limbaugh’s talents all up and you can see why he is paid what he is paid.”

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