Few U.S. senators have had more political power in recent years than Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. Arguably, no one has made less use of her power than Collins.

She often calls herself a moderate and has identified herself with Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, also a Republican from Maine. Smith, though, used her power to go after Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a demagogue who said the State Department had been taken over by Communists. He had no more proof than Donald Trump has of voter fraud.

Smith was a hero who lost committee assignments after her “declaration of conscience” speech against McCarthy. And she was ostracized by her Republican colleagues. Collins has never risked her power by using it. Unused power is the same as no power. Here is an opportunity to use her power to help move us toward having a functioning government.

The opportunity depends on what voters in Georgia do on Tuesday, when they will choose two U.S. senators in runoff elections.

Going into the runoffs, the Senate is 48 Democrats and 50 Republicans. If both Democrats win, it would be 50-50, and Vice-President Kamala Harris’s deciding vote would give Democrats the majority for the first time since 2011.

Two other scenarios seem more likely. The Democrats win one seat, or the Republicans win both. If one Democrat won, the Senate would be 49 D and 51 R. And we would be headed for four more years of deadlock, with the whole country at the mercy of Moscow Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader who threw the country into gridlock shortly after the people elected Barack Obama president. If the Rs won both, the Senate would be 52-48 R, and Moscow Mitch would tighten his grip on gridlock.

Back to Collins. She could make history if the Democrats won one Georgia seat. That would make the Senate 51-49 R. If she is serious about being moderate, she could prove it by leaving the Republican Party, making it 50-50 and giving Harris the decisive vote. She could take either of two paths. She could become an independent and caucus with the Democrats, as Sen. Angus King, Independent of Maine, does. Or she could walk across the aisle and become a Democrat.

On at least one scale of conservative to moderate, Collins ranks as the most moderate senator, just as she had claimed during her re-election campaign. All senators more liberal than her are Ds, just as all senators more conservative than her are Rs. The ranking was by ProgressivePunch, a left-leaning website, as you might guess from its name.

So, if Collins switched parties, she would still be the most moderate senator and she would finally have used her vast power.

The consequences for our country would be all good. Not that I believe we should embark on a leftward lurch, but because I believe we need a Congress that does something, especially that does something both in a crisis and to head off crises.

With Collins and such moderates as Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona), the Democratic Party would have a strong pull back toward the center, which is where most Americans define themselves. The center.

Collins would be in an unbelievably strong position inside the Democratic caucus. I’ll bet that Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) would offer her the chair of the powerful (perhaps the most powerful) Appropriations Committee, which she is in line to take over in 2023. She could have it in 2021 if she were a Democrat.

To do so, Schumer would have to give a key committee to Patrick Leahy (Vermont), a true-blue Democrat who is next in line for Appropriations if Democrats control the Senate. Leahy has a deep interest in world affairs, so he might welcome chairing the Foreign Relations Committee. And he might welcome Collins into the Democratic Party.

She could retain her seat on the Select Committee on Intelligence and on the Committee on Aging, which fits her constituency since Maine has the country’s oldest average age.

Collins becoming a Democrat would anger lots of Republicans, none more than the hard-right exemplified by former Gov. Paul LePage, who called her a RINO (Republican in Name Only) while he was guv but worked for her in the 2020 election. In my view, anyone who angers LePage can’t be all bad.

As a Democrat, Collins might draw more support from moderate Republicans – yes, they exist, and polls show they helped Biden win – who worry about the takeover of the party by Trump, and from moderate Democrats, who polls show voted strongly for her.

More impressive, though, is that she would finally show her independence from Moscow Mitch, and she would finally be using her power to help our country.

Bob Neal believes Moscow Mitch’s actions show his true colors. After all, he recognized Biden’s victory hours after Vladimir Putin, Trump’s favorite dictator, recognized it.

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