I had a good laugh reading the ­letters from Polk Dillon and John Rowerdink (March 24).

Like the Republican Party, Dillon is still trying to fight Social Security. He laments how contributions have gone from 1 to 15 percent. Why does it ­matter how much we pay into it? The majority of people want Social Security. Personally, I’d rather pay for the elderly and children to live ­comfortably with health care than to throw money into more wars of choice.

And yes, the deficit is big. But ­didn’t the heroes of the right, Ronald Reagan and Dick Cheney, say, “Deficits don’t matter”? Why do Republicans only decry deficits when Democrats are in office and not when the Republicans are causing the deficits?

Rowerdink’s use of irony is ­hilarious. He decries the death of democracy because the health-reform bill passed — by a majority, of all things! I thought that’s what democracy was!

Then he wrote that the solution was for people to vote in November to express their disapproval. How funny! I thought in the November 2008 election, America voted its ­disapproval in the Republicans, who despite having the majority for eight years, did ­nothing to reform health care. Now he’s upset that the people whom we voted in for “change” ­actually listened to us and gave us health-care reform. This is how democracy works.

Just like when we had to put up with tax cuts for the rich, which drove us into debt, and wars based on lies and turning our president into an international punch line, you’ll get over it.

Or, like my elders said when I protested the Vietnam War, you can love it or leave it.

Or, maybe you prefer a different type of democracy? Perhaps the democracy 2000 vintage — the one where the candidate with the most votes lost?

Rick Gagliardo

Pinehurst