Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing
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Just get ready to fire up your email client and send me some hate mail, but I can’t get all worked up over the retirement of Fidel Castro.
I hope for many things – the birth of Cuban democracy, Cuba’s first voting scandal – I am even looking forward to a sitcom about Havana! But I think those things are far off. I seriously doubt Raul Castro will be a great agent of change for the Cuban people.
I also can’t get too worked up over American dynasties. While I am NOT comparing Bush to Fidel (that is letting Bush off lightly), nor am I comparing Clinton to Castro (she is not the devil incarnate as the right wing conspiracy would have us believe). I am saying, we need new blood to lead this nation. Dipping into the same gene pool is bad for West Virginia and it should be considered bad for the rest of the country.
The world has changed a lot since 1980, when the first Bush entered the White House just as the world has changed a lot since 1992, when the first Clinton entered the White House. I am beginning to feel like a ball in a tennis match – back and forth, back and forth. I fail to believe the only good political ideas in this country come from only two families. What are we gonna have after a Hillary Clinton presidency, President Jeb Bush? Some other Neo-con Bush clone fantasy?
I am just saying for a democracy to survive, we need to stay away from Dynasties.
Dallas was a better show!
I rather doubt that the average Cuban will be better off under a democracy than under the current regime, especially if the hypothetical democratic regime in question is heavily stocked with returning wealthy right-wing Cuban exiles from Florida. Despite the US embargo — which has more to do with the low standard of living in Cuba than communism does — Cubans have better access to healthcare and education than the average American and you are a lot less likely to end up in prison in Cuba than in the US, which has a greater percentage of its population in prison than any country on earth.
This isn’t to excuse the relative lack of political freedom in Cuba, but it’s questionable whether the poor in America are any freer in any meaningful sense of the word than are the Cuban people.
In any case, Raul Castro is reputed to be more pragmatic than his brother and less tolerant of party officials that speak fluent Marxist jargon but who can’t deliver results for the people, so he probably will represent an improvement for Cuba. The only people who could immediately improve the lot of the average Cuban are the President and Congress of the United States, who could and should immediately normalize trade and diplomatic relations with Cuba, especially in light of our friendly relationships with far more oppressive states like China and Vietnam.