"At the End of the Day"

In Washington, everyone tries to think like everyone else (because the way to get ahead is to know what others are thinking). Thinking like everyone else leads to talking like everyone else, and perhaps that is why particular stock phrases are on everybody's lips for weeks at a time. The word "surge" appears to be waning (and since "wane" is the only opposite of "surge" that I can think of, I propose we replace the word "surging" with "waxing") and one of its replacements is "at the end of the day." These words are normally used as a quick way to end the losing side of an argument. "You may be right, but at the end of the day, you're wrong." The reference is to the banal idea that nothing is permanent and even true propositions will one day be false, and on the obverse side of this would be an equally popular non sequitur: "It is what it is." I would go on, but at the end of the day, I'll be dead.