I don’t get the people in Congress and the rest of the country, for that matter, that think its a good idea to continue our current isolationist policies towards Cuba. It actually reminds me of that Far Side cartoon where the kid is trying to get into the school for the gifted by pulling on the door labeled push. Despite all of his efforts, if he keeps doing the same thing he isn’t going to get anywhere.
While I’m not advocating that we throw open the doors to the White House and invite Castro in for tea and cookies, I don’t think trying to use a little more carrot and a little less stick wouldn’t be such a bad idea. To put it simply our current policy is…how do you say…not working. I’d argue that its pretty much as useful as an utter on a bull.
Despite our half-century long program of isolation, the country is still as communist as Castro wants it to be, even though he’s not officially in power anymore. While there have been some small steps towards loosening some economic regulations, the country is still light years away from a representative government allowing for self-determination by the people.
Now, you may ask how I know that a change in policy will work to improve things in Cuba. I don’t. But I do know that our policy over the last 50 years has failed. If we try something different and it doesn’t work, we’re really no worse off than we were with the last set of policies. The basic point is that we’re currently continuing to do the exact same thing expecting a different result, and that, my friends, is one definition of crazy.
Very well put. I always wondered why we didn’t change our approach with Cuba when we changed it with China. I would think we would want to be more friendly with Cuba than China.
Honestly, I’m chalking it up to bureaucratic inertia. There is a relatively small minority that wants to keep things the way they are, while the majority either doesn’t care at all or doesn’t care enough about the issue to push for change. That’s just my opinion.
Not quite. There’s also an enormously powerful anti-Castro Cuban ex-pat community in Florida. They’re not that big in terms of the population of America, but they’re extremely anti-Castro, and extremely well-organized among their own kind (ex-Cubans and their descendants). And they ARE large enough to sway elections in the absolutely crucial swing state of Florida.
That dovetails perfectly with the vestigial, reflexive anti-Castro-ism of the Republican party which is left over from the days of the cold war and stems from their frustration over failed assassination plots against Castro which made the US government both look and feel monumentally silly (including but not limited to truly idiotic plots which I’m sure you’re familiar with, in your professional capacity, such as – no kidding – a genuine exploding cigar assassination attempt, as well as a poisoned-cigar attempt, among others). Put ‘em all together and what have you got?
Me, P.O.’ed that it’s been illegal for my entire lifetime for me to purchase or smoke some of the world’s best cigars (not to say that the illegality of it stopped me, particularly. Ask me about the time Beth and I smuggled an entire 25-count box of contraband Romeo Y Julieta Coronas through customs on the way back from our honeymoon – LOL).