Perhaps in search of a Republican vice presidential nominee that
supports repeal of laws that restrict American travel to Cuba and who voted for
Rep. Rangel’s amendment to end the embargo altogether in 2000, 2002, and 2004, a
private plane
was sent today from Boston to the airport in the hometown of Rep. Paul
Ryan.
Ay! He will soon be reminded of one the cardinal rules of presidential politics. DON'T MESS WITH MIAMI CUBANS.
ReplyDeleteI would bet he changes his position on Cuba to a harder line. Remember that even candidate Obama changed his position and moved to the right.
so what's the betting line on how fast Ryan flips on his Cuban positions? there is no way in heck he'll be allowed to maintain his support for ending the blockade, and his vote to let Americans travel to Cuba will soon be changed into typical Republican anti-Cuba rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteThe degree of right wing Cuban American control in southern Florida is real but cannot last very long due to demographic reasons.
ReplyDeleteEvery year thousands of right wing Cubans in their 70's and 80's die and are replaced by 20, 000 new immigrants from Cuba who might not be pro castro but preserve family ties and would like to do away with the embargo and have better relations among the Cuban and US government.
Right wing Cubans are still kept in power because of their political machine's control over local politics, their ability to mobilize thousands of retirees for primary elections, their influence over the mass media, the fact that there is a lag between the arrival of immigrants and their becoming US citizens and the fact that the new US citizens of Cuban origin have a lower propensity to vote and are less interested in politics than the older Cuban Americans.
But all this is changing and the present day Cuban American population is much more likely to vote Democratic and to support Obama due to their lower incomes and working class or lower middle class position.
In one or two more election cycles the right wing republican control of politics in southern Florida will be much weaker if it still continues to exist.
Right now, despite all its vociferousness, it is hanging on to power by its fingernails.
Cantaclaro
Keep hoping for a change Cantaclaro, keep hoping, but don't hold your breath. Evidently you do not listen much to the opinions of the new arrivals as I do everyday. Even the new ones want nothing to do with Castro or his gang or with politicians who favore the dialogue with them as Joe Garcia does. That is why he continues to lose every 2 years when he runs in the elections.
ReplyDeleteMy friend what people say in public under the effect of the prevailing political opinion and to avoid having their livelyhoods threatened is one thing and what they are apt to do in the privacy of the voting booth or speaking confidentially to a public opinion pollster is another.
ReplyDeleteAccording to private opinion polls most Cubans living in Miami, although still anti Castro, no longer favor the continuation of the embargo.
The percentage in favor of repealing the embargo is also reported to be greater among recently arrived Cubans.
I trust these polls more than loose talk on the streets.
By the way, I do not favor unconditionally lifting the embargo.
I favor Obama's policy to gradually negotiate lifting it bit by bit in exchange for Cuban government measures that favor democratic transition and a market economy.
I am not also hyper allergic to the use of the term "dialogue".
I am in favor of calling for a national dialogue to find a solution for Cuba's crisis as an intelligent opposition propaganda tactic because I expect the Cuban government to reject this call or ignore it and expect this reaction to decrease its popular support and to hasten its eventual downfall.
But I think that the real dialogue that should be held as soon as this call is disregarded should be one among the moderate opposition to agree on a common strategy to obtain popular support and promote public protests in the island.
I believe that adopting a common oposition strategy is the only way to make Cuba ungovernable and to more rapidly overthrow the totalitarian government by peaceful means.
When this overthrowal is finally accomplished, I favor holding another dialogue between the opposition and the caretaker provisional military government that will be keeping order and preventing anarchy in the island to discuss how to bring about the democratic and market reforms that are needed.
I choose to call myself a moderate member of the Cuban opposition.
But if my positions meet your definition of a "dialoguero" I do not object if you choose to call me one.
I also am willing to confess that I sure as hell am happy that Senator Marcos Rubio did not get the Republican vicepresidential nomination.
I believe that, if he was the VP and the Republicans won the Presidential election, US government restrictions on travel by Cuban Americans to the island, on remitances and on aid packages to family members in the island would have a greater probability of increasing and I would like them to stay as they are.
And I also believe that if, by some unfortunate circumstance, Marco Rubio would be called on to succeed Romney as President, it would be a disaster that would worsen the lot of our already sufficiently unfortunate brothers in the island who I would like to survive until we can do away with the Cuban totalitarian regime.
I do not favor a US policy that would lower their standard of living below their present levels.
It does not make any sense to me to prescribe a medicine that would kill the patients before curing the ailment.
Cantaclaro