Colorful buildings in Havana.
No Republican candidate for the presidency (not even The Trumpster) can raise my adrenalin and ire faster and more effectively than Ted Cruz. I don’t think there is an iota of sincerity in him, but he continues to twist issues enough to render himself a proverbial martyr in the political scheme of things, and of course, President Obama is generally the evil wizard at the castle door, ready to destroy Ted’s fantasy land of the 1950’s (assuming it ever really existed in the first place).
On Saturday Cruz spoke at a campaign rally in Provo, Utah, slamming President Obama’s trip to Cuba on Sunday, claiming that a dangerous message was being sent to “political prisoners languishing in dungeons across the island.” Cruz went on to suggest that the Obamas would be rubbing elbows with only the elite rulers of the oppressed land. Though Cruz has not previously been very open about his Cuban heritage, he is suddenly telling the press about his Cuban immigrant father, “who was beaten and tortured during Batista’s regime” and the President’s visit would send only a message of approval to the Communist rulers who are still using oppression to deny basic human freedoms.
Most of What Cruz said had little, if anything, to do with the President’s purpose, which is long term in bringing about some level of positive change for the Cuban people. What Cruz forgot in his ridiculous editing of Obama’s visit is that it isn’t really about Raul Castro, his brother Fidel, or about Batista, or any other dictator with no regard for humanity or individual rights. It is, however, ultimately about the Cuban people, about victims, reform, and compassion. Did Cruz expect the President to arrive with six-shooters ready for a gunfight at some corral?
This is a slow process, Mr. Cruz, one that has been tossed aside for the past fifty years, one that will require patience, diplomacy, and intelligence, all of which President Obama has in abundance. Get your story straight and stop editing everything the President does in order to make yourself look like some political savant or persecuted angel, neither of which you can ever be. Work instead on telling us something constructive you plan to do in order to make America and the world a better place. If you know so much about present conditions in Cuba, why aren’t you there with your people to help bring about change, and if you were to become President, what would YOU do? Please remember that snubbing our noses at the dictators is also a way of ignoring their people, people who need to be brought into the 21st Century, not by bombs and force, but with diplomacy of the most cunning kind. JB
