Having been re-elected, Susan Collins has more time to have that Margaret Chase Smith moment that she’s often mused about. And the Margaret Chase Smith moment we need her to have is standing up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of the Republican Party, who would put party over country and do everything in their power to make Joe Biden an ineffective president.

We expect McConnell to kneecap the Biden presidency because we all remember how Republican leadership met the night that Barack Obama was first inaugurated and strategized opposition. We also remember how McConnell announced, before Justice Antonin Scalia’s body was probably even cold, that Obama would not fill that Supreme Court seat. And, just last Monday, McConnell lent his support to Donald Trump’s election fraud charges, which appear totally baseless.

We have no reason to expect McConnell to work with Biden, so we need Collins to use her seniority in the Republican Party to actually stand up to McConnell, not just express her concern or disappointment. We need her to organize Republican senators (starting with Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney) to oppose McConnell when he takes action that puts politics over country.

Maine chose Biden and Collins, and Maine expects them to work together, not at cross purposes.

Michele Stapleton
Brunswick