Sam Smith – I learned 74 years ago, as a 12 year old stuffing envelopes in a Philadelphia campaign that ended nearly seven decades of Republican rule, that politics isn’t about perfection. It’s about the best you can get when you go the polls.
Subsequent reporting on, and taking part in, elections in places like Cambridge Massachusetts and Washington DC taught me not to expect role models but to seek the best politics we could find each time. Sometimes that even included a campaign you know you’re not going to win but will end in increased knowledge and support for your causes.
Now we have Troy Jackson and Susan Collins to choose between in Maine. Jackson has been accused of anger and mistreatment of women. He also had a bitter rivalry with former Republican Governor Paul LePage. And as one website reported, “He had intense public shouting matches and arguments in the Maine State House.”
Meanwhile Susan Collins voted for justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. She was the deciding vote in favor of Trump’s Medicare cuts, and helped Trump double health insurance fees. She also wrote the bill to increase ICE funding.
When we go to the polls we are not choosing between personal moral models or choosing a minister. We are having an effect on the political future of our state and nation. We need to stop wondering who is a more decent human and pick the one who will most help the political causes we support. And Troy Jackson is clearly one of them.
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