Every day when I wake up in the morning, I ask the question to my wife “Is he dead yet”. She never asks me who because just like much of the world she knows who I am asking about. I am willing to bet there are many people in this country and much of the world asking the same question every morning when they get out of bed.  I remember the first time Trump was running for office a woman on the dock where I kept my sailboat told me how she liked Trump. Here Trump had been accused, even back then, of sexual assault, bragging about going into the dressing room for the Miss Teenage Pageant, and was recorded saying that he would grab women by their pussies. Trump even stated he could shoot a guy right on 5^th Avenue and not lose a single vote.  I asked her how she could like him and she said that she felt that he really “talked to her”. For nine years I have remembered that. She didn’t care about the lies, she didn’t care about the assaults, what she cared about was what he said when the microphone was in front of his face. To recognize that and to counteract that has been the failure of the Democratic Party.

If you honestly look at the two parties there is now a stark difference between the two. When it comes to healthcare the Republicans seem to be very anti-healthcare. Whether you are talking about affordable insurance, Medicaid for the poor and elderly, or vaccines, the Republicans seem to oppose those and the Democrats are in favor of them. Why do we need affordable insurance? Could it be too many big employers don’t want to give their employees’ health insurance and, healthcare is just too expensive for people to pay for it out of pocket? Medical expenses may be the largest contributor to the bankruptcies every year in the United States. It is a huge problem and there is only one political party talking about it and that is not the Republicans. So why aren't the American People hearing about it? It's because Trump is talking to them and not the Democrats.

Trump is turning our backs on our allies and our trusted neighbors, especially Canada. Tariffs are not paid by Governments. Tariffs are levied on goods and the Canadian Government will not pay them, it is the corporations that ship those goods and those costs are going to just be transferred to the consumer in the form of higher prices. Businesses and people will be the ones that suffer. There are a lot of American businesses that partner with Canadian businesses so many American businesses will be hurt too. Canada, as a neighbor, has always been there for us whether it is fighting forest fires or fighting terrorists. Canada was there with us in Afghanistan. Canada joined us in 2014 in our fight against ISIS. Canada was right there with us in Desert Storm to help free Kuwait. And we can never forget the part that the Canadian government played in getting our citizens out of Iran. We could have no better neighbor, economic partner, and military partner than Canada. Trump says he wants Canada to be our 51^st State. Why would Canada want to become that? They have healthcare and they are also one of the freest countries in the world and they are a sovereign nation. Why would they want to give all that up because Trump wants them to? They are the best friend to this nation we could ever have had and Trump would end that. But does that woman on the dock know that?  The press doesn’t report it well. Maybe the Democrats need to start talking with the people instead of at them.  

Trump doesn’t tell the truth, Trump insults our neighbors, and Trump strengthens our enemies but Trump talks to that woman on the dock. How can that be? One thing is that we have terrible coverage by the press. Another thing is he ignores all the things he is doing to harm us and keeps talking to that woman like she is important. He uses social media; he uses the press, but the most important thing is that through his rallies he has taken his messages to the streets which of course the press covers. Does he think she is important? I doubt that but he makes her believe that.  I would say that he wouldn’t even let her in the back door of one of his clubs. He would rather bring in a foreigner on a visa than hire her but she doesn’t look at that. All she looks at is that he talks to her.

Now we are seeing that Republicans are no longer going to participate in town hall meetings because they are having a hard time answering the hard questions from a divided nation. A nation that they divided. So, Democrats, where are you? Instead of holding press conferences saying what a bad job the Republicans are doing start taking your message of hope and the future to the American people. Stop trying to convince the people who already agree with you and start talking to the ones who are being hurt by Trump and the Republican Party. Step up and talk to all those people at the dock who think that Trump is talking to them. Go to the Church festivals. Go to the community festivals. Go where people are gathering and talk with them. Don’t just say that you are the people's party. Show them that all the people are important not only to the democratic party but to the whole nation.