What Do the Cuban Protests Tell Us about Socialism/Communism?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the failure of socialism/communism in Cuba. The failure in Cuba coming on the heels of the failure in Venezuela should open the eyes of Americans.

There are four members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are also members of the Democratic Socialists of America: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Rashida Talib (D-Michigan), Jamaal Bowman (D-New York), and Cori Bush (D-Missouri). The four women have been surprisingly quiet after the news of the protests against Cuban communism, but the Democratic Socialists of America put out a statement of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution.

            American Democrats, progressives, and liberals argue openly for socialism even though there is evidence that socialism/communism always fails. Socialist policies always fail, and the perpetrators are always vicious. Americans who are awake – not woke – know that socialism is the opposite of democracy and the free-market system that has brought prosperity to America. Neil Patel discussed Cuban socialism in an article published by The Daily Signal. 

Since the communist revolution in 1959, leftists in America have celebrated purported Cuban progress in areas such as health care and education. Little mention was made in those quarters about the Cuban government’s human rights abuses, which include political executions, arbitrary imprisonments, an unfair legal system, and severe limits on freedom of expression, free association, free assembly, free movement, and, of course, a free press.

The problem with the left’s embrace of Cuba’s communism is it belies its ultimate lack of regard for those freedoms we, as Americans, hold most dear. The Cuban state is truly repressive. Those standing in the way of the revolution are not tolerated.

For most Americans, things like free speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of movement are not ancillary. They are central to our lives. They can’t be traded away for a year of extra day care. The left does not share this view. Worse, as proven repeatedly in many corners of the world, the left is ready and willing to crush those who do.

            President Joe Biden’s first response to the protests in Cuba was not surprising. He first blamed the protests on the problems caused by COVID-19. His assistant secretary of state for the Cuba region put it this way on Twitter: “Peaceful protests are growing in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortages.” Patel bluntly called out the statement.

There is nothing truthful about this statement. First, there is no meaningful “right to peaceful assembly” in Cuba. Cuba’s president in fact called for his fellow party members to crush any dissent. “We are prepared to do anything,” he said. “We will be battling in the streets.”

In addition, the protests were clearly about a lot more than COVID-19. Protesters chanted “Freedom!”, “Down with communism!”, and “Patria y vida” (homeland and life) in videos widely available all over the web. A crowd of protesters even gathered outside of the Communist Party headquarters chanting, “Cuba isn’t yours.”

And most glaringly of all, American flags could be seen all over the place. The Cuban protesters were flying American flags because the American flag is still a symbol of freedom for people all over the world. All of this was glaringly obvious watching the Cuban protests on video.

            Officials of the Biden administration got the whole thing wrong, and they were supported by the mainstream media. How are Americans supposed to think anything different when “the only news most people see on the web is the corporate media party line. The truth is not available from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Even though their reports were not true, it is the “reality presented to the American people by Big Tech.”

The American left is pushing a truly radical policy vision through the Biden administration. It is attempting to expand the government by trillions of dollars more than any time in history. Its vision includes government involvement in many new areas of American life.

Lying about what is really happening is necessary if the very policies you are espousing, the very direction you are advocating taking America is under widespread attack in a place like Cuba by the very people suffering under this failed experiment. The glue that held things together when conservatives in America were somewhat united was opposition to communism.

Religious conservatives opposed communist governments’ state-based atheism and their mistreatment of the church. National security hawks opposed communism’s expansionist desire and aggressive military stance. And free market conservatives, of course, opposed the communists’ desire to destroy and replace capitalism with a command-and-control economic system.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, these groups have had less and less in common to hold them together. The result is the fragmentation on the right that we see today. And the result of that fragmentation is increased difficulty in stopping Biden’s increasingly left-wing agenda.

Maybe the Cuba protests can help remind conservatives of what’s at stake. The Biden administration certainly seems to fear that’s the case.

            Another way that the Biden administration is acting against America’s interests is in the immigration/refugee area. The administration opened the southern border and invited anyone to enter. People from more than 160 nations have crossed the border without going through the legal immigration process. Yet, Cuban refugees were told NOT to come because they would not be allowed or welcomed. What is the difference?

            Migrants crossing the border are more likely to vote Democrat, while refugees/immigrants from Cuba are more likely to vote Republican. All of them speak Spanish. What if the Cuban immigrants told the immigrants crossing the border the truth about socialism? That would be a terrible thing for the American socialists!