Newspaper endorsements aren't supposed to matter anymore. In this hyper-partisan age, people are not open to the possibility of changing their minds. Their opinions are ratified daily -- even minute by minute -- by likeminded souls on Facebook and other social media. That's why many newspapers have abandoned candidate endorsements in presidential elections.

But this year, some consistently Republican newspaper editorial boards, seeing in GOP nominee Donald Trump a threat to fundamental American values, are re-embracing the presidential endorsement. And a lot their readers aren't happy about it.

"We're feeling the weight of our history," Arizona Republic editorial page editor Phil Boas said this week. He was remarking on a rash of subscription cancellations and threats that have flooded into the newspaper since the Republic endorsed Hillary Clinton, the first time the 126-year-old newspaper has backed a Democrat for president.

"The challenges the United States faces domestically and internationally demand a steady hand, a cool head and the ability to think carefully before acting," the editorial states. "Hillary Clinton understands this. Donald Trump does not."

The Republic's editorial board admitted it has reservations about Clinton but insisted she is clearly the superior choice. It then listed the well-known arguments against Trump, including his simplistic, vague and ever-shifting policy positions; his blatant sexism; his race-baiting; his childish insults; "his stunning lack of human decency, empathy and respect."

Trump, the editorial concluded, is "beneath our national dignity."

The Republic has joined a no longer very exclusive club: Republican publications that reject Trump and encourage readers to vote for one of his opponents. The revered conservative journal National Review started the trend back in January when it devoted an entire issue to criticizing Trump. More recently, the Dallas Morning News and the Cincinnati Enquirer broke long traditions of supporting Republican presidential candidates by endorsing Clinton. New Hampshire's conservative Union Leader newspaper, meanwhile, has backed Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.

The Union Leader editorial, written by the paper's publisher and featured on the front page, started with a joke making the rounds on the internet:

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are together in a lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. No land in sight. No ships in sight.



Question: Who survives?



Answer: The American people.

In Dallas, a group of angry readers gathered outside the Morning News' offices to protest the paper's Clinton endorsement. Editor Mike Wilson addressed them, arguing that the editorial board chose to stand on principle rather than partisan tradition. He later acknowledged on Twitter that he "got a few words in and persuaded zero people. Shouting continued."

Texas remains a safe red state. It will go for Trump in November. Part of the reason the Arizona Republic is receiving vitriol from readers no doubt comes from the fact that the Democratic presidential candidate, for the first time in a generation, actually has a shot at winning the Grand Canyon State.

The latest poll out of Arizona, taken immediately before Monday's presidential debate, gave Trump a very slim lead in the state, 40 percent to 38 percent, with Johnson at 9 percent.

It's going to be a close election. And if Arizona ends up giving the presidency to Clinton, the Republic probably can expect another wave of subscription cancellations.

-- Douglas Perry