We want to walk carefully with this comparison, but we will make it anyway.

Before Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C., Harvey Godwin made a similar pledge with different words concerning The Turtle. We weren’t surprised by Godwin’s election in November 2015, but will admit to being a bit so with Trump’s a year later.

They share something else: Those whose backs Godwin and then Trump walked on to elected office are reluctant to accept the will of the voters. In Trump’s case, less than a month after his election, there are members of Congress who have already raised the I word — impeachment.

Godwin’s critics displayed a bit more patience, but have recently raised the R word — recall, which is provided for in the Lumbee constitution. Those behind it, however, recall for us another R word — retread. They are simply trying to resurrect a government of corruption that Godwin campaigned to reform.

We don’t think it’s happenstance that this recall effort sprouted wings after Bosco Locklear lost his job as the longtime housing director for the tribe. We have seen a video of Locklear speaking about the recall effort, and he suggests the timing is coincidence, but we don’t believe that — and doubt you will either.

We get by far more complaints about housing help related to the tribe than perhaps all other complaints combined about the many other local governments. They fall almost exclusively under two headings: someone needs help, but isn’t getting it because they don’t know the right people; or someone who isn’t deserving of help is getting it because they do know the right people.

We aren’t accusing Locklear of any wrongdoing, but, as Trump said, sometimes the swamp needs to be drained.

Lumbee voters voted for that when they picked Godwin over incumbent Paul Brooks in November 2015. Brooks had finished the term of Purnell Swett, and then was elected himself, and he ran again even though there was a question of eligibility since the constitution does not allow a third term. But to know Brooks, is to know he doesn’t think the rules apply to him.

Trust us: Brooks is at the heart of this recall effort, even though Godwin received almost 800 more votes than did he in an election during which only about 5,500 ballots were darkened.

Those who oppose Godwin have made some serious allegations, including that he has misused dollars earmarked for housing, and that he has used staff on the tribal payroll to perform work at Campbell Soup, where his private business, Two Hawk, provides temporary employees.

The truth needs to be known.

But we would remind Brooks and friends that the tribe has a history of misuing housing dollars, whether paying Tribal Council members stipends illegally, or for vacations cloaked as conferences. If a dime of it has ever been repaid, we are not aware of that happening. As always, the ones the money is intended to benefit are the losers.

We were interested in the accusation that Godwin’s administration has not been transparent. Our experience is otherwise. While we agree that Godwin doesn’t show all his cards, we find him willing to disclose what he can, and we are unaware of him being dishonest with this newspaper, which certainly is a refreshing breeze.

Of all the tribal administrations this newspaper has worked with, Brooks’ was easily the most secretive, deceitful, and, we believe, corrupt, a servant to the good-old-boy system.

There is a process for recall, and while that hill is steep to climb, Brooks, Locklear and friends are within their rights to pursue it. Ultimately it will be the call of the Lumbee people, and their decision will be a referendum on whether they prefer what was with Brooks, or what is with Godwin.