It is a low-level flutter, the whisper campaign; "this is how Castro started, with the milk-toast of shared wealth." Yes, for an older generation the scars of the past are thick and heavy; for those who lost possessions, and property, family and friends. The effort to link the imagination of Cuban Americans from Castro to Obama really does need to be thought through.
In fact, if you want to know you will pay, under the Obama tax plan: click here.
As for fears of socialization, understand this: the Bush White House-- and for six of the last eight years-- a Republican Congress sat by while our economy sailed onto a coral reef. Its political origins are right here in Florida, where real estate developers and their supply chain pay Spanish language radio hosts on AM radio.
Older Cuban American voters should be wondering about the redistribution of wealth now underway. In their wildest dreams, Democrats couldn't imagine the scenario Republicans have triggered: an economic shipwreck costing trillions. This is happening today: the de facto nationalization of the financial sector with private industries like real estate housing, auto manufacturers, and insurance companies now clamoring that they cannot survive in the "free" market.
How did this happen? Click here.
Well, I hear: things would have been so much worse if Gore or Kerry were president. And that reminds me of what my father says, when views like this are offered from thin air, "If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a trolley car." But let's not backtrack; the election on Tuesday is so important.
Older Cuban American voters should reconsider and listen.
The road we have followed, in Miami, is littered with home foreclosures, rising unemployment and lowered expectations; you can't follow the same road expecting that it will lead you to a different destination. It is time for change.
2 comments:
This commentary is in reference to an e-mail circulating among Cuban-Americans that compares Obama with Fidel Castro. I must tell you that I was born in Cuba, came here in 1960, and I am and have always been anti-communist. I was a high school teacher for many years, and I am voting for Obama.
Comparing presidential candidate Barack Obama with Fidel Castro because both speak of change is a wrong argument.
Fidel Castro had been involved in violent acts, during the “Bogotazo” in 1948 and during his years as a student leader. In 1953 he attacked the “Cuartel Moncada” and was sent to jail. He was pardoned. In 1956 he disembarked in Cuba and started a guerrilla war. He came to power through a process of violence, not through an electoral process. Democratic institutions and political parties of the young Republic of Cuba were very weak at that time in history.
Barack Obama is a presidential candidate of one of two political parties in a democracy that is more than 200 years old, with a division of powers and a system of checks and balances. To propose or even suggest that Obama could become a dictator shows a lack of knowledge about the complex governmental processes of the United States and the limits of the president’s power. This e-mail is merely a tactic to scare Cubans and others into voting for McCain, for fear that Obama will become another Castro. One can agree or disagree with Obama’s ideas, but to disqualify him because he speaks about change is absurd: McCain/Palin are now also talking about making changes in Washington, and many candidates at one time or another offer platforms of change. (Bush included!) If anything is scary, it is that Palin has been whipping up the crowds to a frenzy, even if it is evident that she lacks substance and knowledge. The cries by thousands of “Drill, Baby, Drill!” actually remind me of Castro’s repeated slogans in his lengthy discourses to rouse the people.
It is curious that so many Cubans have become so conservative, and that so many are Republicans. This could be attributed to the trauma of the revolution and to the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion under Kennedy. In Cuba, Cubans were much more open minded. There was a feminist movement in the 20’s. In 1940 and under the agreement and the blessing of all political parties, a constitution was drafted in Cuba that contained a great sense of social justice. This constitution was much more akin to the philosophy of the American Democratic Party than to that of the Republican Party.
Moreover, Cuban exiles owe much more to Democrats than to Republicans, since it was Johnson who opened the doors of this country to Cuban exiles in the 60’s. Kennedy and Johnson gave away “Cuban loans” to young Cubans, so that they could pursue university degrees. The social benefits that Americans and Cubans now enjoy, like Social Security and Medicare, we owe to the administrations of Roosevelt and Kennedy/Johnson, who were Democrats. Democrats were also responsible for many of our civil rights today, and, later on, for women’s rights. Cuban women have successfully incorporated themselves in the labor market and have made huge contributions to the economic success of the exile community.
These factors should be taken into consideration when voting- as well as others such as the state of economy and Wall Street, the huge national debt, the housing crisis, unemployment, jobs sent abroad, present government spending and waste, the handling of environmental problems, the war in the Middle East, health, education, etc., -instead of recurring to lies and deceit. We Cubans should know better, since we have all had to suffer Fidel Castro’s propaganda and lies for an eternity. No podemos ni debemos caer en lo mismo.
That webpage is dunk!!! Me and my wife make more than $250K a year jointly, however, the calculator only tells you what you save if you make less than that. By the way Otaxa has changed his definition of rich several times. Honestly, I am sick and tired of tax and spend liberals. This economic crisis has nothing to do with tax policy and everything to do with lending policy (thank you Dems for Freddy and Fannie). Go ahead and vote for the next Depression!! Raise taxes when the economy is in the state that it is in... I guess he is taking a page from the book of a Republican, Herbert Hoover, as he attempted to keep the Country out of a Depression by raising taxes and increasing tariffs. Looks like OTaxa is going to doom us to repeating history, instead of learning from it....
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