This editorial appeared in The Times Record (Maine).

We are glad, and also a little relieved, to read Maine Senator Susan Collins’s denouncement of Donald Trump in the Washington Post this week.

“This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican,” the Republican senator wrote in the Post on Monday. “But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.”

Last month, in our call for Collins to not endorse Trump, we were puzzled as to what was left for Collins to evaluate about the New York billionaire. After all, Trump had by then spent about a year heaping abuse on his opponents, protesters, journalists and veterans, including Collins’s own Republican colleague, Sen. John McCain.

So what did it take? Apparently, there was not one but three final straws:

“The first was his mocking of a reporter with disabilities,” Collins wrote, in part. “The second was Mr. Trump’s repeated insistence that Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge born and raised in Indiana, could not rule fairly in a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage . .”

Third was Trump’s criticism of two grieving Gold Star parents, something that has been condemned by nearly everyone, including Trump supporters like House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Despite recent polling that shows him lagging significantly behind Hillary Clinton, the danger of a Trump presidency is still very real. There are, astonishingly, more than 14 million Americans who have already cast their lot in with Trump. That’s the number of popular votes Trump scored during the primaries — more than any other Republican primary candidate in history, according to the Post (which also notes that Trump holds a record for having the most votes against him).

“I realize that Mr. Trump’s success reflects profound discontent in this country, particularly among those who feel left behind by an unbalanced economy and who wonder whether their children will have a better life than their parents,” Collins wrote. “As we have seen with the dissatisfaction with both major-party nominees — neither of whom I support — these passions are real and the public will demand action.”

Well and good, but the fact remains that the best preventative measure against a Trump presidency is a vote for Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, that is a pill too bitter for many, including Collins, to swallow.