I was furious that Thad Cochran slimed his way to victory, but every time we hardcore conservatives lose a battle, it seems a contingent of bitter-enders starts up about how the Republicans and Democrats are exactly the same, and how they’ll refuse to vote in the general, and how they’ll take their collective ball and go home.

That’s crazy talk. We can get even with the GOP establishment later; we need to beat the Democrats first.

Now, many of my good friends disagree with me here, but I respect them enough to say what I think. And I think that when we focus on the establishment’s antics in Mississippi instead of focusing on November, we make Barack Obama happier than if he got to play 18 holes with the ghost of Karl Marx.

Let us assume that Thad Cochran didn’t play fair. Now let me assume the role of your father:

Life is not fair.

Yeah, I was shocked – shocked! – that our opponents refused to commit ritual suicide in order to allow our chosen candidate to waltz into the nomination that, a couple weeks ago, was his for his taking. Was anyone expecting the establishment to go quietly, to rollover, to not use every tool at its disposal to hold on to power?

We’re conservatives. We’re not supposed to make excuses, but I’m sure hearing a lot in the wake of Cochran’s win.

Yeah, his win. News Flash: Thad Cochran got more votes than our guy. That means our guy failed to perform the most important function of a conservative politician.

He failed to win.

Hell, he couldn’t handle the GOP establishment calling him a racist. Why does anyone imagine he could have handled the Democrats doing it in November? They’re the pros!

Yeah, Cochran dared to appeal to Democrats…who voted for him. It would be nice to have other Republicans embrace this innovative concept.

Am I happy about the slanders Cochran’s buddies spread, or about the way the K Street crew spent zillions to keep Thad awake and away from the livestock long enough to get nominated?

No, but that ship has sailed and sank. Winners leverage their assets into victory.

Am I suggesting that we forgo our vengeance? Never! I’m all about payback. But getting even with these K Street creeps can wait. I say defeat the Democrats first. Instead of choosing to fight two opponents at once, we can deal with these establishment tools later from a position of strength when Reid’s reign is just a bad memory.

I’m getting sick of this quitter talk about how we can’t possibly win, about how everyone’s against us, about how this struggle being hard is some sort of cosmic injustice perpetrated upon us by mysterious forces beyond our control.

George Washington and his men ate their damn shoes as they shivered in Valley Forge. That’s adversity, not having to somehow find the strength to carry on after nominating a Republican who is sure to win in November and has a mere 88 percent conservative rating.

This isn’t about our feelings. This isn’t about our “principles” either. There is no principle that compels us to allow Barack Obama to retain a Senate majority that absolutely will confirm a Supreme Court justice who will absolutely vote to:

Eliminate your right to speak freely

Eliminate your right to practice your faith

Eliminate your right to keep and bear arms

Might some GOP senate dork vote to confirm someone like that? Maybe, but a Democrat absolutely will. Refusing to support every GOP nominee means you are choosing to be silenced, disenfranchised and disarmed.

Yeah, that’ll sure show Thad Cochran and all his pals. The only thing he’d like more is a lap dance in the champagne room at the local 4-H Club.

So we’ve lost a battle. We’ve lost them before, and we’ll lose them again. Did you think this business of taking our country back would be easy? Did you expect a cakewalk? Well people, this is where we winnow out the summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.

My new book, Conservative Insurgency, is a speculative history of what it will take to win this contest for our nation’s soul, and it has a subtitle: “The Struggle to Take America Back 2009-2041.” That’s right – this fight will take decades. The progressives couldn’t run a great country like ours into the dirt overnight and we won’t pick it back up in a day.

So here’s the deal. We suck it up, vote for Thad if we live in Mississippi, and focus on fights where we can run up the score. Louisiana. Colorado. Alaska. How about Joni Ernst in Iowa? Are you so mad at the GOP that you’ll abandon this Army veteran to a trial lawyers’ puppet who thinks farmers are dummies?

Yeah, the establishment sucks. But so does helping it win by indulging your frustrations instead of standing up, brushing yourself off, and getting back in the ring for another round. You want to send a message? Let victory be your message.

But there’s no easy way to win.

A third party isn’t going to do it.

Refusing to vote for GOP candidates isn’t going to do it.

Trying to occupy some pseudo-moral high ground by refusing to dirty your hands by making hard choices between sub-optimal options isn’t going to do it.

There’s one path to victory.

We fight.

We fight for the best GOP candidate in the primary.

We fight for the GOP candidate in the general.

We fight, starting at the precinct level and working up, for control of the Republican Party apparatus.

Look how far we’ve come. Ted Cruz. Rand Paul. Mike Lee. Plus all the rest trying their best to prove their conservative bona fides to us. Oh, and I’ll have fries with that, Eric Cantor.

All in just five short years.

Think how far we can go to returning America to greatness – if we fight.