Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ silence during her party’s presidential primary season has been deafening.
Collins has long presented herself to the people of Maine as a reasonable moderate, someone who works well with all sides to find solutions. Her party is now potentially embracing a presidential candidate who defines himself through anger, xenophobia and hateful nationalism.
I call on Sen. Collins to follow in the footsteps of one of her predecessors, Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, whose seat she now holds.
In 1950, Sen. Smith forcefully spoke in her “Declaration of Conscience” against Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s rabid, reckless, anti-communist accusations, tacitly endorsed at the time by Republican Party leaders. Imagine what effect such an act of courage by Sen. Collins would have on her Republican Party today.
Moreover, if she did so and her party failed to respond, I would call on Sen. Collins to prove her moderation by leaving the Republican Party and joining with Maine independent Sen. Angus King. If Sen. Collins does not do this, she will be telling us where she truly stands.
Bill Muldoon
Harpswell
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