Columbia Pictures

A few nights ago, I was watching The Way We Were, a film I’ve seen more times than I can count. This time, a single line stopped me.

Katie Morosky, played by Barbra Streisand, has just returned from a political demonstration in Washington. She and Hubbell are arguing when she says:

“People are their principles.”

It’s a simple sentence. But it carries a profound truth for all of us.

Katie isn’t talking about politics. She’s talking about character.

Principles are more than opinions. Opinions change. Political positions evolve. But principles are the convictions that guide us when the easier choice conflicts with the right one. They define us when compromise is more convenient and courage carries a cost.

Katie and Hubbell genuinely love one another. However, their relationship ultimately fails because they answer one question differently:

What are you willing to sacrifice for what you believe?

Katie believes there are moments when keeping the peace isn’t enough. Hubbell prefers avoiding unnecessary conflict. He isn’t without decency, but Katie understands that decency without conviction can become acceptance.

Principles matter.

Abraham Lincoln understood that.

He assumed the presidency as the nation was coming apart. He faced military defeats, fierce political opposition, and the heartbreaking loss of his son. Nonetheless, he understood that preserving the Union could not be separated from the moral question at the heart of the Civil War: the meaning of human equality.

His greatness did not come simply from winning the war. It came from refusing to abandon the principles that gave that struggle its purpose. He steadied the nation not by telling Americans what they wanted to hear, but by reminding them who they aspired to be.

Principles matter.

John Gilbert Winant understood that as well.

As America’s ambassador to Great Britain during World War II, Winant stood beside a nation fighting for its survival. He didn’t seek attention or personal advantage. He walked through bombed neighborhoods, strengthened the alliance between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, and believed that public service meant placing the common good above oneself.

At a time when authoritarianism threatened to overwhelm democracy, Winant understood that freedom would endure only when people possessed the courage to defend it.

Principles matter.

We are living through a time when principle too often gives way to power. Political convictions once described as sacred are quietly set aside when they become inconvenient. Conduct once condemned is defended when it comes from someone on our own side. And loyalty to a person increasingly appears to matter more than loyalty to the Constitution, or even the truth.

President Trump did not create every weakness in our political culture. But he discovered and exploited it, demonstrating how readily some elected officials will sacrifice principle for political advantage. The greater failure, however, belongs not to one man but to those who know better and remain silent.

History teaches us that democracies are rarely weakened by a single leader. They are weakened when enough people decide that protecting their comfort and careers is more important than protecting what matters most: Principles.

They matter because the Constitution cannot enforce itself.

They matter because every generation is called upon to defend the values it inherited.

Katie understood something that reaches beyond the story of two people who love each other but cannot reconcile who they are. People are their principles. Not their slogans. Not their political party, or patriotism. Their principles.

Lincoln understood that. Winant understood that.

The question is whether we still do.

A nation does not lose its moral direction all at once. It loses it one compromise at a time, one rationalization at a time, one silence at a time.

That is why courage matters.

That is why character matters.

And that is why 

Principles matter… more than ever.