Where I grew up, we had a pathetic little zoo that reminds me now of the Republican U.S. Senate. The animals there were kept in such soul-crushing confinement that most of them simply lost their minds. They shambled aimlessly in their tiny pens and would not face their heartless keepers.
Even in the sad menagerie that is the Republican Senate, Susan Collins is an oddity, a kind of exhibit animal that the keepers sometimes trot out to demonstrate their mastery. Collins is permitted to perform a pantomime act of conscience, a small gesture that mimics the independence she long since sacrificed as the price of her captivity. And so she “votes her conscience” — as in the case of resisting Kash Patel — when the keepers’ calculations ensure it will make no difference.
Otherwise she stays in line, never daring to use her alleged integrity or the influence of her genuine longevity to lead the others just a step or two off their path of grinding, mindless obedience.
Jeff Steinbrink
South Portland
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