It’s no secret that a significant element of the Republican establishment can’t get away from Donald Trump fast enough. The latest evidence of this came on Thursday morning, when a newspaper that has long been used as a bully pulpit for right-wing politics loudly declared it wants nothing to do with the Donald.
The New Hampshire Union Leader, based in the state’s largest city, Manchester, has long been one of the most right-wing pieces of real estate in American journalism. It’s so far right that many people in New Hampshire call it “the Onion Loader.” Perhaps its lowest moment came in 1972, when someone forged a letter to the editor suggesting that then-Democratic frontrunner Edmund Muskie was prejudiced against Americans of French-Canadian stock–the infamous “Canuck letter.”
Muskie responded with an emotional speech in front of the Union Leader offices, in which melting snow was misinterpreted as tears streaming down his face. This triggered concerns about his stability that all but ended Muskie’s presidential bid. Years later, the FBI suspected that the letter was part of Nixon’s “dirty tricks” campaign against Democrats.
However, apparently today’s Union Leader has some standards. We found that out when publisher Joseph McQuaid, who has run the paper since the death of longtime publisher Nackey Loeb in 2000, announced in a signed editorial that Trump would not get the Union Leader’s support in the upcoming election. Instead, McQuaid suggests that his readers vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.
This is the first time in 100 years that the Union Leader has not endorsed a Republican for president. So what could make the Union Leader break this streak? Well, let’s let McQuaid tell you himself.
“Voters leaning toward Trump are understandably fed up with the status quo, of which Clinton is a prime example. But they kid themselves if they think Trump isn’t pretty much a part of that status quo as well, or that he is in any way qualified to competently lead this nation.
The man is a liar, a bully, a buffoon. He denigrates any individual or group that displeases him. He has dishonored military veterans and their families, made fun of the physically frail, and changed political views almost as often as he has changed wives.”
Ouch.
It turns out that McQuaid and Trump have been feuding for most of the year. Back in December, McQuaid denounced Trump as a real-life version of Biff, the bully from “Back to the Future.” In an editorial that sounds like it could have come from a liberal blogger, McQuaid called Trump “a crude blowhard” who is utterly clueless about the role of the presidency. He also noted that Biff was modeled very closely on Trump. Apparently Biff was modeled on Trump.
Trump responded in what would become typical fashion. He tore into McQuaid on the campaign trail, calling him a “lowlife.” Watch more on their war of words from The Wall Street Journal.
Gee–so having some standards makes you a “lowlife”? Apparently so, in Trump’s world.
Then again, we’ve seen time and again that a number of right-wingers think that having basic standards of decency makes you a librul squish. I’d like some of those people to have a chat with some of my more right-leaning friends. I’ve talked to at least four of them who wear their conservative and Republican ties on their sleeves, and yet will not even consider voting for Trump.
The Washington Post notes that no major newspapers have endorsed Trump. Indeed, Johnson has three endorsements in his column. Besides the Union Leader, two other Republican-leaning newspapers–The Winston-Salem Journal and the Richmond Times-Dispatch–have endorsed Johnson. Does that make them squishes? Quite the opposite. It shows they have integrity. After all, aren’t we told to stand up to a bully? That seems to be what McQuaid is doing.
As I said when The Dallas Morning News broke a seven-decade tradition and endorsed Hillary, there is no defensible reason for any newspaper to endorse Trump at this point, knowing what we now know about him. Any newspaper that does so will be guilty of gross journalistic malpractice.
(featured image courtesy Bob Hookway, New Hampshire Union Leader)
