BDN photo by Gabor Degre.
The choice in this year’s U.S. Senate race is pretty clear to me. If Republican incumbent Susan Collins wins, civilization will tumble back into the Dark Ages and the world as we know it will be utterly destroyed. So I’ll be voting for Collins’ Democratic challenger, Shenna Bellows.
I’m talking about global warming and, specifically, the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would facilitate the extraction and combustion of oil from Canada’s tar sands deposits. If this exceedingly dirty oil source were to be fully exploited, while conventional fossil-fuel consumption continued at its current pace, scientists say the concentration of carbon dioxide in the sky will exceed levels last attained during the Pliocene era, when sea levels were 50 feet higher than they are today. Global average temperatures would rise by several degrees, significantly worsening the record-breaking droughts and superstorms presently plaguing Earth’s population.
Collins supports construction of the Keystone XL. Bellows opposes it. What else do you need to know?
When it comes to ensuring the future of humankind, a “moderate” approach isn’t enough. In the debate between pretty much every credible scientist on Earth and Republican politicians who believe dinosaur bones were buried in the ground by Satan, there is no middle ground.
“When it comes to the environment, we cannot afford D-grade leadership in Washington,” Bellows told the Huffington Post. She’s referring to Collins’ lifetime rating by the League of Conservation Voters, which gave the Republican a score of 67 out of 100 for her environmental voting record in the Senate. The League endorsed Collins’ re-election bid this year regardless of the fact that, by its own assessment, she’s very nearly a failure when it comes to protecting life on earth.
Collins thinks she can get away with being canny when it comes to the issues that matter most to Mainers. Take the question of raising the minimum wage. Her supporters are slamming Bellows for “falsely” claiming Collins opposes raising the sub-poverty-level federal minimum of $7.25 per hour. Bellows has been clear that she supports an increase to at least $10.10 per hour.
Collins does support a higher minimum wage. She just refuses to say what she thinks the wage should be. Many of us have had similar debates with our children: “Do you know the correct answer to this homework question, Timmy?” “Yeah.” “OK, what is it?” “I’m not gonna tell you.” “Why not?” “I don’t wanna say.”
Timmy may have a 67 in math, but he’s got a bright future as a bipartisan problem-solver in Washington.
Same deal with equal pay for women in the workplace. Despite Bellows’ claims to the contrary, Collins does think the government should require employers to pay women the same salary they pay men for the same work. What Collins opposes is requiring employers to prove they’re actually doing that.
“Timmy, did you give your sister her fair share of the Halloween candy, like I said you had to do?” “Yeah.” “OK, Timmy, if you say so, that’s good enough for me. You’ve always shorted your sister’s share in the past, but there’s no need to show me the bag.”
There are many more examples of Collins’ confounding approach to statesmanship. She didn’t think a measure to repeal Obamacare should have been attached to a budget to keep the government running during the shutdown. So when senators tried to remove the amendment, Collins voted, twice, to keep it.
“Timmy, you said you wanted to go to Aquaboggan, but when we got there you wanted to leave. Why?” “It’s Harry Reid’s fault.”
Collins is a champion of gay rights, we’re told. But while Bellows and so many others with no political power were working hard and speaking out for years to give gay Mainers the right to marry, Collins was silent. She took her bold stand in support of gay marriage less than four months ago — a year-and-a-half after her constituents voted to support it. This is leadership?
Granted, none of this money and equal rights stuff will matter when we’re paddling around Waterworld with Kevin Costner. A vote for Bellows is a vote for the lives of future generations. Bratty, selfish and downright annoying as he may be, do it for Timmy.
