Dear Editor:

My parents were engaged on the eve of the Second World War. My father, a pacifist, joined the army as a medic so he could play his part in defeating fascism without carrying a gun. He was wounded, captured, and spent years in a prison camp. My mother became a nurse. They lost five years of their lives and started a family late. I was born in 1948.

Today, we have many uncomfortable similarities with 1930s Germany in those years before Hitler cemented his grip on power. We have the demonization of minorities, the willingness to lie and lie and lie, the normalization of political violence, the suppression of voting, and the rejection of the outcome of elections as the arbiter of who rules and who does not. This is the most disturbing trend: if we do not accept the will of the voters, how can we have a peaceful transfer of power when one party loses and another wins?

We have other deep-seated problems, decades in the making with both Democrats and Republicans to blame. Solving these problems requires a functioning democracy. Without it, sooner or later all our voices will be silenced. It is a reflection of these extraordinary times that I, as a left-leaning Democrat, find myself in agreement with Liz Cheney, a principled right-leaning Republican: defending democracy is the core issue of our times.

Protecting the right to vote and the legitimacy of that vote from all who would impugn it and attempt to undermine it is becoming an increasingly existential issue, irrespective of your or my politics. We in Maine have done a better job than almost any other state in the nation of enabling the will of the voters to be expressed and accepted without question. While many other states have rolled back voting rights, Janet Mills has protected and expanded the ability of all voters of any political persuasion to make their voices heard. In these increasingly difficult times, we need leadership that will protect and expand the right to vote. We need to re-elect Governor Mills to keep up the good work.

Nigel Calder

Newcastle