America has the most important election in our storied democracy’s 240-plus-year history coming up very soon on Nov. 3. Are you registered to vote? If so, great! If not, why not? Your privilege, your duty and your right as an American citizen over the age of 18 is to vote. Don’t let anybody try to convince you differently. Being fully informed of the facts and the truth about the candidates is also vital. Not too many countries in the world have that privilege, duty and right, so it is precious. While there’s still time to register, time is short and you can easily do that. Just go to Idahovotes.gov and follow the instructions. Do I, as independent, care about who you vote for? Absolutely, and here are some of the facts and the truths about why. If you choose to vote just because of the letter by their name or what you perceive as their philosophy and without learning about those facts and truths, shame on you.

The first fact is that one of Donald Trump’s first orders, done in his bullying way is that American people shouldn’t believe in America’s media because they’re only spreading “false news” and “alternate facts” but, rather, to just believe him and what he says. That is straight out of the pages of what Hitler did to gain control and manipulation of the German people way back when. That is no accident or coincidence. The only “false news” or “alternate facts” that have come out in the last four years are straight from the pathological liar that he is and the press that supports that does support those lies. Half-truths, not telling the American people anything (like not telling us for several months after he learned of how serious the COVID-19 virus was) and just flat-out lying are his foundation. Another “biggie” is the tax cut. All we were told by Trump was that we would “love” the tax cut. Are you aware that he conveniently and on purpose didn’t tell us that the wealthy and large corporations were getting arguably the largest tax cut ever in American history? There are tons of highly respected investigative reporters out there who are simply telling the real facts and you’d be well-advised to listen to them, not Trump.

In March 2017, right after Trump took office, 28,000 highly trained, professional psychiatrists and psychologists, members of the American Psychiatric Association, signed off on a document that says that Trump shows all the classic signs of serious mental illness and watch out. Let me repeat, 28,000 experts in the field and who are from all political persuasions said that. If you choose to not believe them or just poo-poo them, then I would suggest you’re nothing more than a blind, brainwashed Trump Cult member. The last time those professionals said anything about the mental condition of a presidential candidate was about 57 years ago when they exposed Barry “Let’s Just Nuke ‘Em All” Goldwater for his own mental illness. While they were absolutely proved correct, they got sued and somehow lost a bunch of money and have kept their mouths shut ever since, at least until March 2017.

As important as the above is, the real dangerous and scary part of voting for Trump is the question: Do you want our democracy, where all the people matter and are listened to as they should be, or do you want Trump’s current oligarchy of only the very rich serving as every cabinet head, as postmaster general and as Senate majority leader? Another four years will likely see our democracy become an autocratic dictatorship, if it’s not already. John Bolton, a far-right former senior adviser to Trump, said publicly on TV a few weeks ago that America could recover from one term under Trump but not two. Michael Cohen, Trump’s close sidekick lawyer for many years and who’s now taking serious legal hits for simply carrying out Trump’s orders, says amongst many other things that Trump seriously believes that if he tells the same lie over and over that there’s a certain percentage of the American people who will believe it as truth. There are thousands upon thousands of good Republicans, many of them big names, who are jumping off of the Trump bandwagon because they well see that Trump is simply a really bad, immoral, unethical, racist, white supremacist, sexist, narcissist who will stop at nothing to get his own totally self-absorbed, “I-Never-Make-A-Mistake,” “It’s-Never-My-Fault,” “I’m-Always-Right” self elected. There are also many “R’s” who’ve realized they made a big mistake in the 2016 election and who will also be voting for Biden even though they haven’t abandoned their own core, conservative beliefs. For them, to do that is very hard but surely is a major indictment of what a horrific person Trump is and that he only leads by bullying, intimidation, fear-creating and distraction of the everyday American people like us. Those traits are not leadership in public service.

How can anyone possibly vote for this despicable sub-human? How can anyone on this planet, but especially the POTUS, who stands on the beaches of Normandy, where thousands of good Americans died on D-Day and many thousands of others who were wounded either physically or mentally for the rest of their lives, and call them “losers” and “suckers” because, as he says on a recorded tape, that they had nothing material to gain. That is unconscionable, that is unforgivable and that is both un- and anti-American. He did much the same with a vicious, vindictive attack on a dying John McCain. That’s exactly why all the McCain people in Arizona have organized and are voting for Biden even though they still believe in the core, conservative values of the Republican party. This list could go on and on as “the swamp” gets more poisonous and corrupt on a daily basis thanks to Trump, not less. This list could go on and on and on and I could easily fill up a whole newspaper page with a bunch more incredibly unbelievable-but-true stories about just how despicable he is as a human being.

The vast majority of Americans, myself included, want a president who will return to just common decency, sanity, genuine love for God, family and country, planning strategically, listening to and following scientists and experts in any given field, disagreeing agreeably and with true respect for all Americans, hard work (that doesn’t mean on one’s golf game), doing health care properly, doing his best to get Big Pharma’s prices down so people can literally live, getting the one in five Americans who are living at or below the poverty level a living wage so they can again love being an American (since “trickle down” doesn’t work, never has, never will, how about we try “trickle up” and see how quickly social welfare programs and things like food banks go down), only taxing those making over $400,000 a year more and stop the 1 or 2 percent from laughing all the way to the bank as they pocket their yearly millions while breaking the backs of their workers, many of whom must work two or three jobs just to keep a roof overhead and food on the table.

Equality, justice and fairness for all is what is needed most right now in America. As an independent, I will proudly be voting for the Biden/Harris ticket and against Trump the person. I encourage you to read this commentary more than once, think deeply about it and then, hopefully, see the truth and the facts about what has been said here and do the same.

George Coutis is a former Pocatello City Council member and retired teacher at New Horizon High School in Pocatello. He also opened the first all-natural food store in Pocatello in 1972.