Susan Collins always wanted to be like Margaret Chase Smith. Well, now’s her chance.

Smith stood up to the demagogue Joe McCarthy because she had morals and a spine. Isn’t it about time Collins found her own morals and spine and stood up to the demagogue Donald Trump?

Mainers deserve good schools, jobs with a future, affordable health care, and a fair shot at a better life. But Collins has hitched her wagon to Trump — and Mainers are getting nothing.

Mad King Donald is the outer sign of a cancer in our country. He’s a malignant narcissist with antisocial personality disorder — a thug, a liar, an ignoramus. And Republicans are his bootlickers — cheaters, toadies to the rich, traitors to democracy.

Collins knows it. The whole world knows it. Yet there she stands among them, month after month, grinning.

And it’s only getting worse. Now Trump has blood on his hands: America has more coronavirus cases than any other country in the world, and thousands of us are dying needlessly because of his chaotic nincompoopery.

Is this how Susan Collins wants to be remembered? She’s already the least popular senator in America. And to judge from the polls, she’s not getting reelected anyway.

So why not go out in a blaze of glory and redeem herself? She could break ranks, speak the truth, and change the course of history. She could be like Margaret Chase Smith after all. If so, she might even get reelected.

George Simonson

Harpswell