Senators Collins and Murkowski, It's Time to Leave the G.O.P.

Republicans have a one-vote majority in the Senate. Their number includes two female moderates, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both of whom support abortion rights, and one of whom — Ms. Collins — has already declared this week that she would not support a candidate hostile to Roe v. Wade. A no vote from these two senators might not be enough to offset affirmative votes from endangered red-state Democrats. By leaving the GOP—either to join the other party or, more plausibly, to become independents and caucus with the Democrats—Collins and Murkowski wouldn’t simply be registering their opposition to a single Supreme Court justice. They’d be taking a powerful stand against their party’s escalating betrayals of the country.