Does Susan Collins have the courage to caucus with Democrats?

“Mitch McConnell has been my friend and colleague for decades. I am proud of the work that I have done with him and the Republican Party. But the people of Maine continue to elect me as a moderate. And the best way to act as a moderate, and in my constituents’ best interests is to join my colleague, Angus King, in switching my party affiliation to “Independent” and caucusing with Democrats.”

This is the sort of statement that Susan Collins should make if she wishes to multiply her power in the Senate and act with integrity by switching caucuses. There are staggeringly good reasons for Collins to do so.

Caucusing with Democrats would empower Collins to do the following:

1. Be the deciding vote on many bills and judicial and cabinet nominees, and thereby gain tremendous power in the Senate.

As a Republican, Collins has a certain amount of power to dissent against Mitch McConnell’s agenda. She has defied him with some laudable votes in the past. She saved Obamacare by voting against its the “skinny repeal.” She voted to end U.S. participation in the ongoing genocide in Yemen. And contrary to the GOP’s preposterous reputation of being committed to fair trade, Collins and Olympia Snowe were the only Republican Senators to defy McConnell (and president Obama) by voting against an unpopular trade agreement with Colombia. More recently, Collins was the only Republican who voted against appointing Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in the 11th hour of an election year. The remainder of the caucus acted with breathtaking hypocrisy by appointing her.

But Collins’s contributions to decency as a Republican have largely been limited to such attempts at harm reduction. She has had limited ability to help Democrats pass legislation that she likes for one obvious reason: If McConnell does not like a bill, he simply does not bring it to the floor. And if a good bill never reaches the Senate floor, Collins cannot vote on it and help pass it.

This has made it very difficult for a minority-Democratic Senate to help fight climate change, protect women’s reproductive rights, or save public sector workers’ from ruin amidst our ongoing Covid recession. These are all issues that Collins cares, at least somewhat, about. As the 50th or 51st Democratic vote — should Democrats win at least one runoff election in Georgia this January — Collins could help pass any Democrat-sponsored bill that she favors. With McConnell in charge, she generally cannot do so — because such bills will never see the Senate floor.

As the 50th Democratic caucus member, moreover, Collins could, effectively, exercise veto power against any straight party-line bill. As the 51st vote, she could act in tandem with conservative Senator Democrat Joe Manchin (of West Virginia) to do so.

Collins could hence help pass any bill, or approve any judicial or cabinet nominee that she likes — while having incredible power to veto those which she dislikes.

For this reason alone, Collins would see an incredible advantage — and little disadvantage — in caucusing with Democrats.

2. Benefit from a great deal.

Collins surely understands Senator Charles Schumer’s desire for her to caucus with Democrats. She could easily parlay this desire into a great deal for herself. Collins would gain party leadership positions and benefit from Democratic sponsorship of generous projects for Maine’s economy if she switches caucuses. Whatever the wonky details, switching parties would obviously redound to Collins’ and Mainers’ benefit.

3. Save her legacy from the taint of McConnell’s leadership.

It is demonstrable by now that McConnell will leave an ignominious legacy. He has effectively stolen a Supreme Court seat, along with many seats on the federal judiciary. He has led the U.S.’s radical and unique opposition to protecting the planet, by opposing the Paris Climate Agreement. He has helped to ensure that the U.S.’s health care system will remain dysfunctional, cruel, and unfair for years. McConnell, in short, may be a brilliant wielder of power; but if history is ever recorded truthfully, his other legacy will be as one of the great villains of American, if not world, history — a wrecker of democracy and perhaps habitable life on earth. Collins should not want to be remembered as one of McConnell’s critical enablers.

4. Ensure her seat for a lifetime.

Democrats launched a vigorous, but ultimately failed effort to unseat Collins in 2020. Conservatives can spin this how they like. But the context that Collins was re-elected in suggest that Mainers re-elected her because they view her as a moderate.

Look at the rest of the country. There is not a single other deep blue state in which a Republican hold a Senate seat. Look at the rest of New England. Although each state in the region is deep blue, Republicans hold three governorships in it — in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire — principally because New Englanders view these Republican governors as legitimate moderates.

New Englanders uniquely like and elect Republicans whom they view as moderates. That is why before she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Collins was perennially one of America’s most liked Senators. (This is in stark contrast to McConnell, who is usually America’s dead-last least popular senator.)

Indeed, largely because of her Kavanaugh vote, Collins temporarily became our least popular Senator, displacing McConnell. And it is possibly mostly due to Collins’s opposition to Coney Barrett’s appointment that Collins saved her career, and won re-election rather comfortably in a deep blue state.

Rightly or wrongly, Mainers view Collins as a true moderate, who will act independently of McConnell’s agenda. But she can only effectively do so in the Democratic caucus, free from the fetters of McConnell’s leadership. If she does, and flips the U.S. Senate blue, she will be deeply admired by Democrats and Independents in Maine, and probably ensure a lifetime’s worth of reelections there.

5. Allow the next elected president to select future Supreme Court justices.

Collins was clear. She wanted the winner of the 2020 presidential election to select Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s successor on the U.S. Supreme Court (although if we are honest, her rhetoric went further than her actions).

The seat, nevertheless, has been stolen and the damage has already been done. And we should only expect a new McConnell-led Republican majority to do further harm by blocking all of Biden’s future nominees to the Court — even if Biden nominates moderates like Merrick Garland, as Obama did.

Collins may want Biden to do his Constitutional duty and nominate justices to fill the courts. But he may not be able to do so if McConnell holds a Senate majority. If Collins truly wants to allow Biden to fill the Courts with his judicial nominees (and thereby fulfill her Constitutional duty), she must take action to stop McConnell’s obstruction. She can only do so by caucusing with Democrats.

Fear of the right?

As I ponder the possibility of Collins’s switching allegiances, I can viscerally understand her best possible reason for not doing so: fear of the extreme right. Trump, McConnell, right wing media, and ten thousand MAGA-hatted bullies will likely scream bloody murder — and perhaps even commit it — if Collins takes courage and switches caucuses.

But being a Republican moderate in America, today, means having the courage to stand up to world-historical villains, Trump and McConnell.

The planet demands it, democracy demands it, decency demands it — as do the people of Maine who are likely to be crushed by austerity if McConnell retains power.

The choice is clear for Susan Collins. She must switch caucuses, or she is no moderate.