Sen. Susan Collins responded to censure by the Maine Republican Party by suggesting work toward the election of more Republicans. Which Republicans, I wonder? Does she have in mind the racist, nativist and homophobic elements of the dominant Trumpian wing, compounded in Maine by the devotees of uncompromising absolutism regarding the Second Amendment?

Doesn’t she see the clear connection between “gun rights” agitation and the militia-driven assaults on state capitals and Congress? Is she enamored of Trumpist opportunistic fellow travelers like Lindsey Graham and Kevin McCarthy? Or is she drawn more to the deviousness and obstructionism of Mitch McConnell?

I am inclined to think that the senator has in mind a more traditional anti-tax, anti-government ideology dating back to Ronald Reagan, at the center of which is trickle-down economics, a fiscal approach designed to mollify the mostly white middle class but without the capacity, or intention, to enrich the lives of those lower down on the social scale. The racism of this policy is not immediately apparent, but racist it is.

One unfortunate dimension of the November 2020 election was that no one asked Collins why, given the extremist state of the GOP, she remains a Republican. Neither did anyone press her as to what she actually believes, if anything.

Particularly as we now have clear evidence that the Republicans are led by an incorrigible liar who has neither learned anything constructive nor forgotten any of his grudges, the course of honor and good sense would be for Sen. Collins to vindicate her vaunted independence and formally withdraw from a party which presents a substantial threat to American Democracy.

 

Ed McCarthy

Vienna

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