Re: “Collins hasn’t said how she’ll vote, but she’s praised Biden, denounced Trump in the past” (Aug. 8, Page B3):

This story makes clear that already by 2016, Sen. Susan Collins had declared that Donald Trump’s conduct would not earn her vote. She references his disrespectful and contemptuous attitude, “constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize,” contrasting these traits with the consistent decency and optimism she has long admired in her friend Joe Biden.

Recognizing as she claims to, that President Trump’s severe character deficits have not and will not change, it is hard to understand Sen. Collins’ unwillingness to decisively withdraw her support now, and state openly that she will not vote for him in the upcoming election. She is revealing moral timidity in the face of Trump’s lethally arrogant and scientifically ignorant mismanagement of the pandemic. Rather than channeling the bravery of her legendary Senate predecessor Margaret Chase Smith in facing down Sen. Joe McCarthy, Sen. Collins is shamefully failing to call out Trump’s life-threatening defiance of scientific authority.

Susan Collins’ fear of meaningfully challenging the president (despite her accurate critical observations mentioned above) will compromise her bid for another term, as will her ongoing dependence on wealthy donors and groups who, like her, are also willing to overlook Trump’s dangerous lack of concern for anyone but himself.

James H. Maier, M.D.
Falmouth