Dan Demeritt is too modest. His April 14 column reveals a clear plan for Shenna Bellows to defeat Susan Collins next fall.

You see, the Collins campaign counts on Maine voters knowing “little or nothing about how she votes on specific issues.” When Collins opposed a “public option” for health insurance, saying she worried it might harm the poor insurance companies, was she acting for Mainers? When she was one of the first to endorse a Senate attempt to speed us into a war with Iran, did she think that seeing more Mainers dead or wounded in yet another needless war would be good for Maine?

Demeritt dismisses issues like “minimum wage, reproductive rights, equality and pay equity” as “too complicated and inconsequential” for Mainers to care about.

Why should Collins be replaced? That’s easy. While her voting record may show her to the left of other Republicans, it exposes her as being to the right of every single Democrat in the Senate. Collins reputation as a “moderate” is a fraud; she is a Republican.

The recently passed Ryan budget shows clearly the Republican philosophy. Destroy Medicare by turning it into a voucher program. Gut Social Security, Medicaid, food support and education. And, of course, grant more tax cuts for fat cats like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson.

Republicans in control will give us more Supreme Court justices like John Roberts and Samuel Alito. And, we can look forward to more wars that will bleed off funds needed for our social safety net.

Republicans in Washington want to destroy everything decent about this country. So, the next time we see Collins in Republican red, we need to show her that we are paying attention to the issues. And ask why she’s a Republican.

John R. MerrillAugusta