Op-ed Is Sad Sign Of GOP Weakness
The Courant, like other newspapers, has long believed that the credibility of any institution rests on the ability of those in it to stand up and be accountable. When it comes to our opinion pages, we publish op-eds from people willing to sign their names and be known. This allows readers to fairly evaluate the opinion. It also prevents someone from making false or misleading claims from behind the protective cloak of anonymity.
So the decision by The New York Times to publish an op-ed Wednesday by a person identified only as “a senior administration official” — who paints a picture of an “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective” President Donald J. Trump — stands out as an extraordinary decision that, while understandable, could also give ammunition to those who criticize the media. The use of unnamed sources is never a decision entered into lightly here at The Courant, or at the Times, because the risk of having the information proven wrong and weakening readers’ trust is too great to be careless.
The unsigned op-ed, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” takes news reports about internal fighting and intrigue inside the White House to another level.
It also reveals a sad truth about the current state of the Republican Party at this unsettling time in history: Faced with a potentially destructive leader, many seem willing to look the other way while those who are determined to act are forced into underground resistance.
Where Are Republicans With Guts?
It’s too bad that so many officials in the GOP refuse to go public with criticisms of the president they bemoan in private.
It’s too bad there aren’t more Republicans in office with the courage to stand up for the principles the party once stood for — in the words of the Times op-ed writer, “free minds, free markets and free people.”
It’s too bad there are so many Republican politicians who seem to have forgotten those principles as they ride the populist coattails of someone who acts more like a loudmouth bully than the president of a free nation.
Here in Connecticut, Bob Stefanowski, the GOP nominee for governor, has nothing but praise for Mr. Trump. “I firmly support Trump’s economic policy and the way he’s re-cutting deals and streamlining government,” he’s said.
Former fellow candidate David Stemerman had blasted Mr. Stefanowski for failing to vote for Mr. Trump and accused another candidate, Mark Boughton, of “siding with the anti-Trump fringe over and over.”
For his part, Mr. Boughton walked back his earlier criticisms of Mr. Trump, saying at a debate, “I supported our nominee just like everybody else in this room.”
Former candidate Steve Obsitnik said that “my moral character and what I would do would probably be different” from the president’s, but “I always support our commander in chief.”
Former candidate Tim Herbst was one of the president’s strongest defenders among the GOP gubernatorial hopefuls.
Where are the guts in the party that was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery? Now its officials must resort to subterfuge to stop the man in the White House from acting on his most dangerous impulses.
Why did it take the late Sen. John McCain to be the rare moral voice of the party, to say it’s not OK to be racist and xenophobic, to decry “half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems”?
Who Are We To Talk?
Our readers will point out that this editorial, like The New York Times op-ed, is unsigned. That’s because editorials represent the view of this institution, The Hartford Courant, not any one person inside 285 Broad St.
Editorials are the product of collaborative — and often spirited — debate among the editorial board members: Publisher Andrew Julien, Opinion Editor Carolyn Lumsden, Editorial Writer Stephen Busemeyer and Associate Editor Peter Pach. One of us may draft an editorial, but it’s almost always tweaked by the committee to better reflect long-held principles and positions of The Courant. Readers may learn more about us editorialists at courant.com/ hc-opinion-department-who-we-are-0225-story.html.
Unlike editorials, op-eds are signed. The Courant, in modern times at least, has never run an op-ed without a byline. Nor do we publish anonymous letters to the editor.
Though we are not thrilled that the Times ran an op-ed that was unsigned, we recognize that may be the only way a White House insider can alert the nation to the reckless behavior of the man behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
It’s deeply troubling that Republican officials are afraid to stand up, in public, to an erratic, perilous president.