Jonah: This may be an appropriate moment to pull out one of my favorite quotes, by T. S. Eliot. A year ago, I was reading it for comfort in the face of left-wing triumphalism. This week, it encourages a sense of humility. But however you look at it, the idea behind it is profoundly conservative.

There is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that it will triumph.

I keep it listed on my Facebook page, along with a line from Eliot’s poetic heir, Kurt Cobain.