Michael C. Connolly, a retired history teacher, lives in Portland.

This year, 2026, marks 250 years of America’s existence as a democratic republic. Many have reflected upon what exactly this means for the nation and for each of us as individuals who are lucky enough to live in this wonderful country.

Many have asked, “What can I do, as a single American citizen, to help preserve the best of America’s traditions and aspirations?” It is this singular question, “What can I do?” that I would like to reflect on.

For many of us, this year is one of challenge and contradiction. While we rejoice that our republic has survived and prospered as few other countries have done, we sense that the very foundational beliefs upon which the country was founded are under constant threat and attack.

We have a president who has sought in many, many ways to gain power and wealth for himself at an astonishing rate. Most often these threats have been unchecked by those within his own party, often seemingly in the hope of holding onto personal power themselves.

Our president’s very apparent authoritarian style of governing was clear long before his current second administration. No less an authority on governing systems around the world than our former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, in her 2018 book, “Fascism: A Warning,” stated unambiguously that the then current occupant in the White House was “the first antidemocratic president in U.S. history.”

This analysis predated his failure to accept his clear electoral defeat in the 2020 election, and his active promotion and encouragement of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by his fervent supporters on Jan. 6, 2021 — one of this country’s most shameful and sorry days. To this very day the president and many of his most ardent MAGA followers continue to deny reality and truth in their refusal to accept the mandate of the American voters in that election.

Enough of looking back at the past and of our president’s role in undermining American
democracy. Instead, we should all be focused like a laser on the future and the upcoming
elections of 2026 and 2028 if we wish to take back what is best of our country and move as quickly as possible away from its recent trends toward an authoritarian future.

Recent Supreme Court decisions have made this threat more possible with several unfortunate rulings on presidential power and accountability. We are left with the abiding and singular question of what can any individual living here in the state of Maine do about these large and very real challenges.

For me, the answer seems clear.

The nation is now focused on Maine unlike at any other time that I can remember in my
years of voting. It has been claimed, with much reason behind it, that the road to taking back the Congress, in particular the Senate, runs through Maine. Many believe that if the voters of Maine return Sen. Susan Collins, Democrats would have few realistic chances of gaining control of that body, which has rubber-stamped most of the president’s programs and wishes.

For all her claims of moderation, Sen. Collins has voted with the administration over 90% of the time. She has approved most all of the president’s court appointees, with devastating impact. Concerns alone are not enough to reverse these trends.

The central risk of not taking the Senate from Republican control this year, in my opinion, would be the possible retirement of two of the Supreme Court’s most senior and conservative justices. Their replacement with two much younger nominees, both again vetted by the Federalist Society, and who could serve for an additional 30 or more years, would preserve a 6-3 far-right majority well into the future, thus continuing to place our democracy in peril.

For many reasons besides this, but for this one reason in particular, the central answer to the question “What can I do?” would be to vote and play our own small part right here in Maine.

Let us return the Congress to Democratic control in hopes of undoing some of the damage that has already been done. We could then move forward with confidence toward a saner and more democratic future for all.