02-07-2021, 05:22 AM
(02-27-2020, 10:53 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(02-27-2020, 02:13 PM)Marypoza Wrote:(02-26-2020, 04:43 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(02-26-2020, 10:31 AM)David Horn Wrote:(02-25-2020, 07:15 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I don't see how that's possible, when most Castro haters are old and Republican? The younger ones and the non-Cubans there don't care so much, any more than other Americans. Florida is a very diverse state; Cubans are a small part of it. Most educated people know that socialism vs. capitalism is not a black and white issue. I don't see why common sense won't prevail here. And the retirees like social security too. Florida has been a razor's edge state and it will be again.
The Sandinista leader Ortega turned out to be rather conservative, and he still runs the country. What was wrong was Reagan's support of the contras, who were terrorists who we supported to crush a native revolution of people seeking a better life. Sanders was completely right on that one.
What he said in the past is not as relevant as his clear denunciation of dictators, including socialist and communist ones. Why isn't that being played up?
A dumb move, maybe. But I don't think it was a move. Bernie just tells the truth; that's his style, and people like it. If people would rather have a perpetual liar instead of a truth teller, then that tells us our nation is doomed. It may be, but that's where we're at.
Eric, I've spent a lot of time working in Florida, and I know these folks pretty well. There are a lot of Catholics (some lapsed, but still bound on a cultural level). The young ones grew up hearing the stories. After all, refugees, like those in the Mariel boatlift, may have included parents and grandparents … or fiends of their parents or grandparents. I'm sure there's a lower cutoff age where that's less problematic, but remember: both Trump and Rubio won in 2016, and both DeSantis and Scott won in 2018, when the Dems were on a roll.
With Bernie, Florida goes Red for a few cycles .. until the Silents and older Boomers are gone.
I won't believe it until I see some polls. I see no reason why Floridians, other than a few Republican fanatics who support the embargo, would pounce on a few of Bernie's remarks instead of hearing everything he said and knowing that is was all obviously the truth. But you may be right; we'll see.
But Bernie is obviously not a panderer. He says what he thinks and means what he says, tells the truth, and talks the same way to everybody, even to children (see the Trevor Noah piece above). That may get him into trouble at times, but it is his most appealing trait.
-- l agree. The reason Bernie's campaign is so successful is bcuz he tells the truth. Making an observation about how Cuba's literacy rate improved under Castro is not an endorsement of Castro. His predecessor Batista was a monster, which is y there was a Cuban Revolution I. The 1st place
Right, and he said nothing different from what Obama said. The point is we don't want to demonize Cuba now. We established diplomatic relations and need to lift the embargo. Cuba now is not as bad as it once was, and seeing some positive traits in its government is useful now when we are engaging with them (or were until Trump disrupted things as usual). Even though his remarks may (or may not) have been the wrong thing to say in the campaign, it is the right approach for our president to take.
Of course, Obama did not make his move on Cuba until after he was safely re-elected. He won Florida twice, but Trump won it in 2016; maintaining its position as a swing state.
Trade deals make demonization pointless for partisan politics. China gets away with much now because of American investments in China. The investments seem not to be where the Uighurs are.
Is it clear that Cuba will remain Marxist-Leninist? Even if it did ditch M-L such would not satisfy those Cuban-Americans (probably their grandchildren) who believe that they could 'return' to Cuba and lord it over the common people of Cuba as they once did. If it were to do what Czechoslovakia did it would sell off state-owned productive enterprises to establish a social-market system.
Say what you want, but Cuba has missed out on the neoliberal fad.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.