The father of a good friend of mine fought in the Battle of The Bulge. He was about 5’5”, a farm boy from south Alabama, named Festus. He offered a pretty Belgian girl some Coca-Cola, who always said it was the worst beverage she had ever tasted. She married him anyway, because she knew character when she saw it. Those guys of that generation are gone now, and we’re worse off for it.
I wholeheartedly agree. OTOH, it's not unlikely that most of them kept voting D for the rest of their lives.