But that means that Republicans, as a party, needs to knock off the goofy rubbish we’ve pulled since 2010. It means reserving purity for the sacraments. Expecting a Republican from Illinois to talk a big game like a Republican from Mississippi is raw, unfiltered insanity. It’s how you lose seats. Losing seats is how you lose votes. And losing votes is how you get Obamacare.

It means managing expectations. Don’t run for Congress promising to renovate the place and then when you show up act surprised that it’s you and 500 other people who made the same promise.

It means ignoring theatrics on the House and Senate floor, the flashy promises to defund Obama’s golf handicap and repeal the state of Vermont. You’d call for a football coach’s head if he threw a Hail Mary every down. There’s virtue in pounding the ball a few yards at a time.

It means not making enemies out of allies. As when John Boehner took on a Democratic Senate and Obama White House, tactically outfought them to $2 trillion in spending cuts while preserving 99 percent of the Bush tax cuts, and somehow got called a liberal and run out of town for the effort.

It means acknowledging that the deep-red conservatives who listen to talk radio and watch Fox News at 8 p.m. aren’t stupid. It means refraining from snidely deriding them as hillbilly bumpkins who just need to learn things. They flip their dials to those programs because they think guys like Hannity and Rush get their frustrations. They turn to Trump for the same reason. Many of them have been left behind. That’s an opportunity, not an obstacle.