Senator Snowe - The Canary in the Mineshaft of Politics.

Senator Snowe - The Canary in the Mineshaft of Politics. Senator Olympia Snowe's announcement that she will not run for re-election is a huge loss to the cause of rational thought and civility in the US Senate. As the Republican party continues to move farther and farther to the right it will become increasingly clear that all of us pay the price for this. That price comes in the form of continuing and growing cynicism among the American public and legislation and decisions that lack any basis in rational public policy. A strong two party system requires that both political parties be at least bound by a thread of rationality and civility and a commitment to the notion that the creation of public policy be the result of a healthy competition in the marketplace of ideas, not a mindless struggle between those who would have us create a nanny state and those who would burn down the system.