Sydney Michalski lives in Columbia.

Susan Collins is not fighting for you. 

Since launching her first congressional bid way back in the 1990s, armed with a promise to be a two-term senator, Collins is now closing on 30 years in what must be an irresistibly comfortable office. She believes her long, long, long record works in her favor, and she’d like you to believe that, too. But longevity is not actually the same thing as proven leadership. 

Collins’ campaign website says she shows up for Maine, though she hasn’t shown up for a town hall in 25 years. Apparently, her near-perfect voting attendance demonstrates her profound commitment to service. I don’t know about you, but my job attendance stays pretty near-perfect, too. According to every boss I’ve ever had, that’s less of a badge of excellence and more of a bare minimum standard.

Collins pretends to be an independent bipartisan legislator who votes her conscience. In an astonishing coincidence, her conscience aligns so perfectly with her party that she only votes against them when they have enough votes without her.

I will admit, Susan Collins has achieved a level of celebrity that is rare for senators. Sen. Collins is famously concerned. Following any headline that requires comment, Collins’ concern is so prompt you can set your watch by it. In fact, she has been so concerned on such a panorama of issues on which she has never taken any tangible action that she has attained meme status. Collins’ concern is a household name.

Sen. Collins projects an image of fighting for funding and projects that benefit hard-working Mainers. But it’s all a slick advertising display for an agenda that relentlessly benefits the rich at the expense of all of the rest of us.

Imagine a rich king who owns all the bread in the kingdom. You get one loaf a week, and you’re always nearly starving. You’re starting to grumble. One of the king’s servants declares a feast day and gives everyone one whole loaf of bread! The people celebrate this act of benevolence, even as they go back to their starvation wages because nothing has really changed.

Susan Collins is the king’s servant. She loves to create a public display with a headline and a photo op and a soundbite speech about how she delivers for you, the people. Meanwhile, the monied machine she serves keeps quietly siphoning every thin dime from your paycheck into the trust funds of the insatiable corporations that are extorting you for the most basic necessities of life: food, housing, gas and, heaven forbid, basic medical care. 

Collins isn’t going to make rich people pay their taxes, or make mega-corps pay you a living wage. She’s not going to fight for you to have affordable housing or available child care or accessible health care.

Susan Collins doesn’t do favors for ordinary people. She does favors for rich corporate donors. And one of the favors she does for them is to throw us a few crumbs from time to time to keep us appeased, and quiet, and reelecting the status quo while the hoarders sit back and watch interest turn their millions into billions into trillions.

Collins’ theater of benevolent billionaires has had its run, funded on the backs of regular Mainers, and we’re definitely not getting a trickle-down return on our investment. Wages are anemic, prices are up, jobs are down and health care is a luxury. This is what Susan Collins has actually delivered over decades in office under the brand of proven leadership. 

Susan Collins’ Senate career has been a master class in crafting an illusion of public service that never disrupts the flow of money and power to the people she actually serves. And those people are … not the public. Not you and me.

It’s long past time for a change. In the immortal words of 1996 Susan Collins, “Twelve years is long enough to be in public service.”