As Mainers count down the days until Nov. 5, I’m hopeful that we will hand the White House to a candidate we can trust. Only one candidate in this race has been found guilty of 34 business felony counts. Only one has been found unanimously liable for sexual assault and had to pay the victim $5 million and then another $83 million for defaming the same woman.

Can we trust a candidate who has suggested the “termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution”?  Guess what candidate lost the last election (fairly), said it was stolen (wrongly), and helped whip up a crowd that violently attacked our Capitol. Even Fox News had to settle a lawsuit for its misinformation, paying the voting machine manufacturer $787 million. This misinformation was falsely echoed by one candidate who called the election “rigged” countless times, even though he lost both the (outdated) Electoral College (306-232) and the total popular vote by 7,059,547. That’s more than five times the population of Maine.

Six major bankruptcies, 13 failed businesses, including his name-brand airline, vodka, steaks, university –  and now he’s selling autographed Bibles and gold watches. Yup, the same candidate. How can we trust someone with a history of empty and alarming promises such as building a wall on our southern border and scrapping the Affordable Care Act? Forty-five million Americans have insurance through the ACA – and during the only presidential debate, one candidate actually said that they had only “concepts of a plan” to replace 45 million Americans’ health care.

Recently, four-star Gen. John Kelly, the former chief of staff to the former president, stated, “He’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators – he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of a fascist, for sure.” These and more statements by Gen. Kelly about the one-time president were backed up and amplified by 13 former White House aides who worked closely with the former president, including members of the Department of Homeland Security, National Security Council and White House press secretaries. They wrote, “For the good of our country, our democracy and the Constitution, we are asking you to listen closely and carefully to General Kelly’s warning. We unfortunately know all too well how serious and dire it is.”

Then there is Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the highest-ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces and principal military officer to the president. He called the former president “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” These comments were recently backed by former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper saying only days ago that he has no reason to doubt Gen. Kelly’s “honesty or integrity,” adding that the former president’s inclinations toward fascism is  “something we should be wary about.” Even his own former vice president, Mike Pence, does not support his former boss, stating, “Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president again.” Can we not hear the alarm bells going off?

On the national level, this is not a Democrat versus Republican election. This election is about saying no to a convicted felon, someone found liable for sexual assault and an authoritarian who wants to terminate articles of the Constitution to grasp power solely for himself.  Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. We won’t get fooled again.