(photo by Michael Ferry) |
”If people are content with what’s happening in Washington, then they should vote for Susan Collins.”
Does that sound like loser talk? The sort of empty rhetoric every political candidate trots out?
“She’s the status quo,” Collins’ opponent, Shenna Bellows continues, “with 18 years of opportunity to lead on all of these issues. What I see is an economic, environmental, and constitutional crisis, and there are two options: My husband and I could retire to the woods in Skowhegan, or we can get involved. I’m running because I think we need a new approach, with courage and conviction to lead on these issues. I think we need to. I think it’s unconscionable not to.”
And, with Bellows, over beers at the Liberal Cup in Hallowell, that almost doesn’t sound like a bunch of tired and rehashed political bullshit.
Let’s have details. Had she been in office last week during Ferguson, what would she have done? (Collins ignored it, but made sure to release a statement on the “GAO finding administration acted unlawfully in Bergdahl swap”; Maine’s grandfather, Angus King, also ignored it, but accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and celebrated the World Acadian Congress.)
“If I were a US senator right now,” Bellows says, “I would be sponsoring in the Senate a Demilitarization of Local Law Enforcement Act, as has been introduced in the house [by Georgian Democrat Hank Johnson], to stop the transfer of tanks and military-grade weaponry to local law enforcement from the military.
“And I would push for the End of Racial Profiling Act, to stop the racial profiling of young black men by law enforcement in our urban centers. The tragedy in Ferguson is a direct result of racism, government secrecy, and abuse of power by local law enforcement.”
These are things that would not come out of the mouth of Senator Susan Collins, of that you can be sure.
Of course, everyone knows what Shenna Bellows’ biggest problem is. Even if they don’t know who Shenna Bellows is.
That’s the problem.
For example: I was leaving the day job to go interview her and offered up an explanation for my early departure from the office.
“Who’s Shenna Bellows?” the coworkers wondered.
Exactly. And these people live on the Internet.
Despite the fact that she led what would seem to have been a high-profile campaign to gain marriage equality for same-sex couples in 2012, many people in Maine don’t even know the name of the woman who would challenge longtime incumbent Susan Collins for her senate seat this November.
And that’s as much of an indictment of our broken-down, lackluster public discourse as anything else you’ll think of. Despite the fact that Susan Collins backs nothing but the safest of things (veterans! firefighters! potato farmers! freedom!), while doing nothing to actually improve the lot of the average Mainer, she has become the de facto vote for the politically lazy, those who like to pat themselves on the back for not being “partisan.”
In the other corner, however, is a woman who told the bright young head of the AG’s Civil Rights Task Force (she met him on match.com) that he’d have to wait to marry her until everyone had such a chance at a legal recognition of lifelong partnership.
