I am furious with Sen. Susan Collins. OK, I’m a Democrat, but still. When will she stand up to harshly criticize the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE?

When will Sen. Collins:

• denounce the flagrant attacks on free speech;
• denounce the erasure of American history for petty and wrong reasons. (Were the Iwo Jima Memorial and Jackie Robinson’s military service histories really DEI?);
• denounce the slapdash elimination of federal agencies without a clear-cut and reasonable reduction-in-force plan?;
• speak for Mainers who are in the health sciences and who are working to combat diseases?;
• speak out against threats to remove federal funds and grants to Maine’s universities and colleges?;
• speak out against the threats to the rule of law and threats against judges?

Is the senator afraid to speak out because she is afraid of angering Trump or her Republican colleagues in Congress? Is she afraid of a Republican primary fight? Even if she loses the primary, she can run again as an independent, like her colleague Sen. Murkowski did, with ranked choice voting, and probably still win.

Whatever Susan Collins is afraid of is nothing compared to the long-term damage that is being done to the United States of America.

Richard Stower
Yarmouth