As a longtime Mainer and independent voter, I have watched Sen. Susan Collins’ career with cautious optimism, hoping her self-branded image as a moderate willing to cross party lines might translate into principled leadership.

Instead, the first six weeks of 2025 have crystallized a painful truth: Collins has become a hollow figurehead, enabling the most destructive elements of Donald Trump’s agenda while abandoning the Mainers she swore to represent. Her recent actions — from rubber-stamping unconstitutional power grabs to greenlighting devastating cuts to health care — demand either immediate course correction or resignation.

Collins’ vote to confirm Russell Vought as White House budget director epitomizes her moral bankruptcy. Vought, an architect of the Project 2025 blueprint to concentrate unchecked executive power, openly advocates allowing presidents to ignore congressionally approved spending — a direct threat to Collins’ own role as Senate Appropriations chair. Her justification — “Presidents deserve broad discretion” — ignores that Vought’s ideology undermines the Constitution’s separation of powers. This is not moderation; it is complicity in authoritarian overreach.

Her tepid opposition to Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, further exposes her impotence. While Collins criticized Patel’s “aggressive political activity,” her lone dissent failed to sway colleagues, allowing confirmation of a man who published what is seen as an “enemies list” of federal officials and agents. Maine deserves a leader who marshals bipartisan resistance to such extremism, not symbolic gestures devoid of consequence.

Collins’ support for the Senate GOP’s February 2025 budget framework reveals her allegiance to party over constituents. The bill slashes Medicaid — a lifeline for 400,000 Mainers, including rural hospitals already teetering on collapse. Maine’s elderly, disabled and low-income families face reduced coverage, while hospitals risk closure under reimbursement cuts.

Despite chairing Appropriations, Collins has done little to stop Elon Musk’s shutdown of USAID offices — a move that locked employees out of critical systems. When asked about Musk’s unconstitutional spending freezes, she offered only vague hopes for judicial intervention. Mainers deserve a fighter, not a bystander.

Collins’ failures are not new. Her 2020 defense of Trump’s catastrophic COVID-19 response — claiming he “did a lot right” — ignored his months of denial that left Maine vulnerable. Her 2022 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh, despite his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, shattered trust with pro-choice Mainers. Now, as constituent letters flood newspapers pleading for accountability, Collins remains aloof, refusing town halls for over two decades.

Her 2025 appropriations role compounds these betrayals. While securing $5 million for wood heaters, she overlooks existential threats. The Kennebec River dredging project, critical for Navy destroyers, is underfunded, jeopardizing Bath Iron Works jobs. Meanwhile, her committee advances Trump’s deportation raids and education cuts, policies anathema to Maine’s values.

Collins faces a choice: justify her actions with substance or step aside. If she believes slashing Medicaid strengthens Maine, let her hold a town hall in Biddeford and explain it to families relying on insulin coverage. If Musk’s USAID shutdowns align with constitutional duty, let her debate Sen. Angus King on live television. Absent such accountability, her continued presence in office insults Mainers’ intelligence.

The 2026 election looms, with forecasters already labeling her seat a toss-up. But Maine cannot wait. We need leaders who prioritize people over political survival, who confront power rather than coddling it. Sen. Collins has forfeited that mantle. It is time for her to reclaim it — or make way for someone who will.