I didn’t vote for Susan Collins, but I congratulate her on her win and she has my support and best wishes for a successful term. I would like to share an idea that I believe would allow her to use her professed bipartisanship for the greater good of our democracy.

It is no secret that we are split along a bitter partisan divide, with each side entrenching rather than seeking middle ground. Susan Collins has a unique opportunity, I think, to find a core of other Senate moderates (Lisa Murkowski? Joe Manchin? Mitt Romney?) who can join her in an independent, bipartisan bloc of pragmatic, realistic lawmakers who can shape the work of the Senate for the foreseeable future.

With such a narrow majority no matter which side ultimately controls the Senate, both sides would need their votes to achieve any of their goals. This coalition could keep us on track for a more productive democracy, by refusing to participate in obstructionism, moderating legislative proposals to make sure they remain mainstream, ensuring that the president’s judicial and Cabinet nominees get a fair hearing and in countless other ways be in a position to restore the prestige of “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”

Perhaps this is an opportunity to be seized, one that might change the direction of our national politics, and begin to bring us back together again as one America!

Doug Zlatin
Falmouth

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