6.18.2026 – man whose idea of

man whose idea of
principle – anything that
suits his need, pleasure

If it is Thursday, I must be turning to the NYT Opinion piece titled The Conversation, where two men, Frank Bruni a contributing NYT Opinion writer and Bret Stephens, a NYT Opinion columnist review the past week.

Mr. Bruni takes the liberal, Democratic view and Mr. Stephens take the conservative, Republican view of what went on and they discuss their views and compare and contrast.

Did I mention that Mr. Stephens is the Conservation Republican in this conversation?

According to Wikipedia, Stephens was previously a foreign affairs columnist and deputy editorial page editor at The Wall Street Journal, overseeing the editorial pages of its European and Asian editions.

From 2002 to 2004, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.

At the Wall Street Journal, Stephens won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2013.

Stephens is known for his neoconservative foreign policy views, including support for Israel and US military intervention in the Middle East.

In todays’ opinion piece titled, Trump Has Found a New Way to Fail Us, Mr. Stephens writes:

I supported the war from the outset and thought the cause was necessary and just.

But facts are stubborn things, as John Adams said. And the central fact of our time is that we are led —

I am using that verb in the loosest sense —

by a man whose idea of courage is bullying,

whose idea of honor is knavery,

whose idea of loyalty is convenience,

whose idea of patriotism is self-idolization,

and whose idea of principle is anything that suits his need and his pleasure.

Now excuse me while I throw up.

Just think if Mr. Stephens and that man currently in office weren’t on the same team?

Mr. Stephens also wrote:

But I’m struck by the way in which authoritarian pretensions and atrocious taste always seem to go hand in hand. Maybe it’s that moral ugliness tends so often to produce aesthetic ugliness. Whatever the case, the job of the next president will be to erase every vestige of Trump from the White House and any other federal property. Getting rid of Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center was only a start; I look forward to seeing the East Wing restored to exactly how it used to be.

Vance may be the only person in the administration who makes Trump look good. I mean, other than Pete Hegseth. Or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Or Howard Lutnick. Or Linda McMahon. Or, well, my point is: better an honest hypocrite than a pious opportunist.

As Mr. Bruni responded, “He may soon get a midterm comeuppance. Then the clock on his presidency starts ticking more and more loudly.”

In one of his books about Franklin D. Roosevelt (The Lion and the Fox), Historian James MacGregor Burns writes: In America, as Mr. Dooley once remarked, people build their triumphal arches out of brick so that they will have something handy to throw at the hero when he comes through.

But Mr. Burns fails to supply a citation.

I have if from my online research the Mr. Dooley (A Chicago Bartender in the late 1890s as imagined by writer Finley Peter Dunne) really said was, When ye build yer triumphal arch to yer conquerin’ hero, Hennissey, build it out of bricks so the people will have somethin’ convenient to throw at him as he passes through.”

But I cannot find a proper citation for that as well.

Still, let us repeat and heed the advice.

When we build a triumphal arch to that man currently in office, lets build it out of bricks so we will have somethin’ convenient to throw at him as he passes through