Photo: Getty

Maine Senator Susan Collins, the dictionary definition of “Olde-Timey Moderate Republican,” is making headlines today for her announcement that she won’t vote for Donald Trump. Wow—give her a fucking medal, why don’t we?

Today’s date is August 9, 2016. Donald Trump has been actively running for president for more than one full year. You have finally decided now that you will not cast your vote for Donald Motherfucking Stupid Trump, as president of these United States? As acts of moral courage go, this is right up there with stopping for five seconds to hover vaguely on the edges of a crowd that has gathered around an accident victim after dozens of other people have already called 911.

Even people who scarcely pay attention to politics at all have been well aware for months now that Donald Trump is a loudmouthed xenophobic racist know-nothing anti-intellectual nationalistic opportunistic neo-fascist aspiring dictator who combines pathological narcissism and fierce ignorance with a dangerous craving for power. Even Donald Trump supporters understand this. This is old news. This is the guy. This is the Republican candidate for president, and he hasn’t changed a bit since he began this awful nightmare campaign, except to reinforce his own toxic nature at every turn. Casual viewers of cable news know this. Kids kicking it outside of 7-Eleven know this. Everyone knows this.

Yet Susan Collins, a sitting U.S. Senator for two fucking decades, would have us believe that it has taken her all these months of tortured waiting and deep consideration in order to arrive at the obvious conclusion that Donald Trump is a stupid dickhead who should not be President of the United States. Let me tell you something: a mule should not be President of the United States. I know this without observing the mule in action for a year. Making such a determination about Donald Trump is just as easy.

Despite citing many grotesque things Donald Trump did and said many months ago, Collins’ published explanation says that—against all common sense—she continued to hold out hope that “we would see a ‘new’ Donald Trump” who would “develop more thoughtful policies.” That hope lasted, we are led to believe, until this week. Is Susan Collins dumb as hell, or a liar? One or the other must be the case.

Susan Collins have you ever seen The Apprentice? That’s the guy your party nominated for president. Same guy. The exact same. No big change.

Deciding not to vote for Donald Trump fourteen months into his campaign does not make you a hero. It makes you woefully late. It means that you tolerated everything Donald Trump did until now. It took this long to reach your breaking point. Not when he called Mexicans “rapists.” Not when he said he would ban Muslims from entering America. But now.

There is no way for this to be true unless you are an asshole—big time.

Congrats.