“Dirigo” is not just our state’s motto, and not necessarily an aspiration. Maine led in electing a man “of the people” with minority of voters who don’t care what he says. We’ve experienced government run by those who oppose governing, who think rules are meant for the weak, and who lack the respect for institutions and precedent to act in the public interest.

Maine’s lived the Trump Presidency at the state level, with the reign of Governor LePage. And while a President Trump’s singular opportunity to damage our reputation and interests abroad is without a state parallel (although shout out to LePage for sending foreign business investments fleeing!), there are lessons aplenty from our experience to help direct citizen resistance.

If we expected a head of state to be honest, or nice, or even just to merit a PG-13 rating, Maine knows better now. Expecting normal behavior from the highest elected official of the land accomplishes nothing but to keep opponents at a disadvantage. Most of us thought a Governor would not call names, leave apparently drunken threats, ignore ethics rules, or make stuff up. Our perpetual disbelief strengthens his hand, giving him an ever renewable element of surprise, and keeps the press focused on his clownish antics rather than the real long term harm to state government.

So, while LePage’s outrageous comments du jour kept us endlessly entertained for the past six years, his administration is carefully and systematically gutting the knowledge base and capacity of the executive branch agencies that do the work of governing Maine. State workers with the bulk of experience and a professional commitment to implementing state laws and regulations are being forced out or relocated in order to effectively end programs the Governor opposes. These moves are directed by national radical conservative groups who oppose public goods such as environmental protection, public education, and worker rights. Even though the Legislature enacts laws that the Executive is charged to implement, an Executive also enjoys great freedom. Our institutions simply did not anticipate the election of those who hate government to run government, so the normal checks and balances are inadequate. Maine’s agencies will take decades to recover from eight years of LePage.

Applying this lesson from Maine to the federal level, Trump’s tweets and other comments may be easy fodder, but they will mask the duller, more serious work of the planned decimation of expertise and ethics in our federal government. As with Maine, the checks and balances to prevent the nation’s Executive from gutting the very government he is sworn to uphold will be inadequate to the task. The planned appointment of cabinet members each on the record in opposition to the agency they might head is just the start, and a strong indicator that permanent damage if not destruction to our federal institutions is the Trump agenda.

The work of resisting Trump will be harder than in Maine by the lack of balanced government in Washington. With the House and Senate in Republican hands, constituents will need to turn to a higher level of sustained individual advocacy to resist the radical conservative agenda. But early skirmishes show that citizen advocacy may sometimes succeed, with Congressman Bruce Poliquin at least publicly opposing the deplorable, late-night, rushed effort in Congress to gut their own independent watchdog, the Office of Congressional Ethics.

And opportunities abound for Maine to push back in D.C.. Senator Susan Collins stands as a potential ally against radical conservative extremism, on issues ranging from repeal without replacement of ObamaCare, the new rumored push, as well as in demanding a moderate Supreme Court Justice for the seat stolen by the unprecedented obstruction of Mitch McConnell.

Citizen activism at the state and local level matters as well, with the Legislature trying to hold LePage accountable for the unending damage to Riverview, with an opportunity for public activism in Augusta on January 5. In Brunswick, some Town Councilor’s personal anger at citizens asking for a public park on Mere Point continues, a worrisome lack of concern for clearly expressed public interest, and an indicator that public engagement remains essential.

When Indiana Jones shoots the swordsman in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” he was evoking a long cinematic tradition dating back at least to the 1969 classic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Namely: there are no rules in a knife fight. Nothing is normal, and assumptions are dangerous if not deadly. Progressives need to be prepared for the worst, fail to be surprised, and use whatever means to prevail. Maine has seen this movie, with these 6 years of Governor LePage. It’s time for our state to lead, not in tales of woe, but in resistance.

Jackie Sartoris is a former Brunswick town councilor.