I couldn’t disagree more with Carl Szanton’s advice in his Sept. 8 column to vote for Joe Biden and Susan Collins. In the past, he might have had an argument, but these are not normal times. If Biden and Collins were both to win, the Senate would likely remain in Republican hands, which Szanton seems to advocate to encourage bipartisan governance.
In today’s polarized climate, this would simply move Collins from being an enabler of Trump to an enabler of Mitch McConnell, whose Senate refuses to even consider hundreds of bills passed by the Democratic House, and might well refuse to consider any Supreme Court nominations from Biden, just as McConnell did in 2016.
Collins’ brand of passive, moderate Republicanism might have served a bygone era, but except for her vote to preserve the Affordable Care Act, she has largely missed her “Margaret Chase Smith moment,” as another writer, Dick Woodbury, said in his Sept. 8 letter.
Yes, there may be liabilities to single-party governance, but Maine has done quite well in rebounding from four years of Paul LePage without falling off some imagined liberal cliff. Our country is in crisis in many ways. Right now we need unimpeded Democratic leadership to chart us on a new course.
Rev. Jonathan Wright-Gray
Old Orchard Beach
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