As I began gathering my thoughts for this column, Susan Collins had just finally revealed her intent to confirm President Trump’s controversial nominee for the Supreme Court. A bad day in Resistanceland, for sure.

I managed to hear some of her remarks from the floor of the senate live via a chance online news check during my afternoon workplace break. Limited guest access to that coverage ran out and I had to return to work before Maine’s senior senator concluded her rational, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to cross the aisle on her own or bend to partisan mob demands that she do so or face a tsunami of relentless retribution.

Though only one senate vote among 100, and in the end just one of 50 giving the green light to Judge Kavanaugh, Sen. Collins had positioned herself as the ultimate arbitrator in judging whether he would indeed take a seat on the highest court in the land. Standing in the well of the senate she became a lightning rod deliberately shouldering the wrath of the opposition in her historic deliberation seeking a logical consensus within a political maelstrom where partisanship eclipsed all other considerations, where anyone standing in the way of tribal victory was fair game to be sacrificed for the greater good as defined by one side inextricably pitted against the other.

Her defense for her decision was carefully argued for nearly an hour. The inevitable apoplectic dismissal of it took a nanosecond for those hearing only the confirmation of their worst fear.

“I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh” was indeed my own immediate takeaway upon hearing of her concluding decision later by way of media soundbite. The next day, reading the entirety of her speech, my takeaway was no less disappointed, no further convinced by her arguments to support Kavanaugh, but heartened by her heartfelt attempt to have reason reign over emotion and justice triumph over tyranny no matter how passionately it believes in its own inherent correctness.

Taking ownership before all of her constituents, and the inevitable 20/20 scrutiny of history’s account of a galvanizing his-story vs. her-story, Senator Collins was the embodiment of a heroic damned if you do, damned if you don’t true independence in seeking one’s own counsel. That such counsel didn’t side with those that wanted her to cave to their will is the peril of a representative democracy. How many times does it need to be emphasized that participation in electing those that will represent our constituent concerns is truly not an idle game but an important responsibility with real consequences?

I believe her decision was wrong. Not being proven guilty shouldn’t be the threshold for seating someone on the Supreme Court. Nominees should be absent any question of impropriety. A pretty straightforward baseline criterion. Certainly there are other well qualified conservative judges that can pass that bar.

Sen. Collins defined her standard as whether the alleged impropriety was more or less likely to have credibility. Like many on her side of the aisle, she believes the claim of sexual assault happened but gives more credence to the denial of the accused. Not so much a matter of he said, she said as a matter of mistaken identity.

More broadly, the entire evaluation of Judge Kavanaugh’s fitness became one of They say, We say. Two wildly differing nominee persona assessments fueled what became a reality TV partisan soap opera.

Having served on jury duty in a rape case, I well remember how difficult it can be to find the truth in such matters, if possible at all with complete certainty. Fortunately our system of justice dictates that one’s innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Probable guilt is not enough. Many have pointed that out in Kavanugh’s defense. Many have also pointed out that he wasn’t on actual trial but rather applying for a job where temperament’s a crucial skillset.

Kavanaugh’s histrionic exhibition of poor judgment in acting as a belligerent defense lawyer representing himself as the injured party should have immediately disqualified him as lacking the requisite composure to serve at any level of judgeship. Rather than appearing sympathetic, he presented himself as someone desperately evading full disclosure of his past. By Collins’ own “more likely” standard of veracity, compared with the clearly innocent demeanor of his accuser it was far more likely that Kavanaugh was the one not telling the truth. That the otherwise believed victim would have invented his being the perpetrator just doesn’t appear as likely as him being a fugitive finally caught by a past thought long forgotten.

Susan Collins came away with a quite different assessment. That’s her, and therefore our, elected choice.

Praised or condemned, “Our Senator” deported herself with her usual civility. There was no malice in her politics, or subterfuge. There was even some much needed thoughtful detachment.

“When some of our best minds are seeking to develop even more sophisticated algorithms designed to link us to websites that only reinforce and cater to our views, we can only expect our differences to intensify.”

Gary Anderson lives in Bath.