I applaud that President Obama is taking some small steps toward opening up to Cuba; it is about time. Those poor folks have been held hostage by our embargo, and it hasn’t made a blip of a difference in the governing of Cuba. All it really accomplished are color photos of 1950s cars that I’ve only seen in black-and-white photography. Great.
No one can claim that our Cold War policies have had any desired result. Even the Cuban-Americans in South Florida who have been the most ardent supporters of our isolation policies made the embargo a joke as they traveled constantly to Cuba via other countries. That hypocrisy alone overcomes their complaints. I know they want their country back from Castro and they want freedom for their people; and so do I. But it is folly to continue a bad policy – I think 50+ years of failure to oust Castro with the embargo is ample proof that the policy doesn’t work.
I do hope this is a first step, and not a last. Heck, I'd like to go to Cuba without having to do it with my church group. Just for the sake of going. Sounds Hemingwayesque to me.
It is alarming that people can’t let go of their political beliefs when confronted with reality. I know lots of folks still believe in the GOP mantra of less government and less regulation. We had 8 long years to prove that doesn’t work. What more evidence do you need? And while proclaiming that ideal, government spending went through the roof (on the backs of future generations). Again, hypocrisy at its worst. It seems like the real GOP strategy is “borrow and spend” and turn a blind eye when big bidness is running the country into financial ruin.
And the GOP mantra about Cuba: “Let’s pretend we give a shit about that country 90 miles off our coast – we need the votes to carry Florida.” Politics for the sake of politics for the sake of politics. Any interest in evaluating whether a policy works? Or a political philosophy?
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Obama is to be applauded for re-evaluating the policy on Cuba, but he isn't immune to the lure of clinging to failed policies, presumably as a way to pick up votes.
In spite of the billions of dollars this country throws away annually on a failed "War on Drugs" that has been pursued for more than seven decades (20 years longer than the Cuba embargo), in spite of the fact that marijuana has been shown to have some benefits for people who are suffering from cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, etc., in spite of the fact that billions of dollars could be brought in from taxing it, he has refused even to discuss the policy.
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