To the editor:

I turned 18 and enlisted in the Navy on May 22, 1944, and was inducted on June 6, 1944. I cast my first national vote in November of 1944; I voted for Franklin Roosevelt.

I have voted in every election since.

After the war, I spent time in a VA hospital in New York. I served with 16 million other Americans during the war; 406,600 of them died and never returned home. They gave their lives for our country. After the war was over, we returned home to resume our lives.

I became involved in politics at that time. Politicians, Republicans and Democrats got along, agreeing to disagree. They were friends, despite their differences. They went out to dinner together, discussed and worked out their differences. They compromised and got things done. It was never “us against them.” They always found a solution. They were gentlemen. That was the way our government worked, for the American people.

Fast-forward to 2020: Donald Trump is president; Mitch McConnell controls the Senate. It has become a winner-take-all power grab. Compromise does not exist in today’s Republican-controlled Senate, Americans be damned.

Seventy million people voted for Trump in 2020. They did not know what they were voting for. They listened to a pathological LIAR fool them into believing that he was Superman. They did not consider that he was, in fact, despicable. The last four years have proven that he is despicable! His own self-interest and money are the only things that matter to him.

One American is dying every 10 minutes because of COVID. Where is Donald Trump? Playing golf! Where is Mike Pence, head of the COVID program? Skiing in Vail, Colorado!

Joe DeMarco

World War II veteran

Jay