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Dear Senator Collins: It’s Not Us, It’s You
It’s time we have a talk. We know it’s been awhile. We always felt like even though you were registered as a Republican, you still had our country’s back on certain things like a woman’s right to choose, the right to marry whomever one loves regardless of orientation or gender identity, and the need for a clean, green planet. We also thought you cared to contribute to the creation and maintenance of a Supreme Court that contained sitting justices who at least pretended to care about fairness and impartiality…who at least did not casually perjure themselves during sworn hearings. But there has always been a sneaking suspicion your loyalties lay elsewhere, with your party over our nation and the will of its people.
I have seen this coming for years. Well over a decade ago, I once worked for a short time on Capitol Hill as a young intern for a conservation-oriented nonprofit during the dark days of the second term of George W. Bush. The coalition I worked with considered you one of only a handful of Republican Senators who were potential environmental allies on certain key conservation issues we worked on at the time. However, our partnership with you was always tenuous at best, and it sometimes seemed we needed to do a lot of convincing to get you on board for certain things and heap a ton of praise on you when you did come through for us. Your fellow U.S. Senator for…