What Can America Do to Help the Protesting Cubans?

            Thousands of Cubans have been protesting in the streets against the communist regime controlling their nation. Cuba has been under communist control for sixty years. The communists have used all the money available. Now there is not enough food, water, medicine, or electricity. The people are tired of the oppression, and they are risking their lives in protesting.

            The Biden administration was slow to say anything about the communists, but it was finally forced to make a statement against it. Republicans in Congress are trying to get a statement out in support of the protesters.

Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) represents many people of Cuban heritage, and he has heard many stories. Protesters are being beaten. They are being drug out of their homes by the hair of their heads. They are being arrested, and no one knows where they are. In an interview with Rachel del Guidice, he suggested that there are three things that America should do. 

So here’s what we got to do. We’ve got to do three things. The first thing is Joe Biden’s got to stand up. There’s hashtags that we ought to use. Dónde está Joe? Where is Joe? Joe’s nowhere.

Remember, he didn’t want to be in all those international clubs. Like, you work with [French President Emmanuel] Macron, [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, and [U.K. Prime Minister] Boris Johnson. Well, maybe he should call all of his buddies and say, “You know what? We actually do believe in democracy. We do believe in freedom. We’re going to go help the people of Cuba and stop this dictatorship down there.”

But has he so far? No. And look, that’s No.1. He needs to do that. We need to call him out for that.

No. 2, we’ve got to get the internet back on. We’ve got to figure out, whether government does it or private sector, we’ve got to get the internet back on so the people of Cuba can share where they’re going and how to deal with their government. The government of Cuba is scared to death of them, and they should be.

And No. 3 is we’ve got to talk about what’s going on. We’ve got to talk about what’s happening to José Daniel Ferrer. We’ve got to talk about what’s happening to the Ladies in White. And we got to show the pictures of the protests.

And whether the mainstream media will do it, we can do it. We can put it up on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and all that stuff. We can get the message out. If we do, we’re supporting them, and we’re going to see new government. If we get a new government in Cuba, we’ll get a new government in Nicaragua, we’ll get a new government in Venezuela, and we’ll stop the protest in Colombia.

            The protesters in Cuba deserve our support. Cubans have been oppressed by communists for more than sixty years. They are risking everything by protesting for freedom.

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!

Why Are Cuban Protesters Carrying the American Flag?

             I chose the Cuban people as the VIP for this week. Some of the biggest news of the year are the massive protests that erupted in Cuba over the past weekend. The protests took place in dozens of cities, and cries of “Freedom!” and “Down with communism!” could be heard. According to some sources, these are not the usual protests, and they are being called “unprecedented in scope.” It appears that Cubans are tired of the shortages for food and medicine.

            The Cuban protests could not have come at a worst time for the communists in the United States. Bernie Sanders, AOC, and their comrades have been trying to convince Americans that socialism/communism is good. However, the communists in Cuba do not appear to be compassionate to the plight of their countrymen, and the socialized health care system does not seem to be meeting the needs of the people.

            Jarrett Stepman claims that “Cuba is exporting doctors to other countries to pay the government’s bill” at the same time that Cubans cannot access basic treatment and medicine.” He quoted The Wall Street Journal as saying that the Cuban government has tried to use “the pandemic as a way to earn hard currency for the ruling elite and boost its legitimacy around the world.” It seems that some people “are more equal than others” under communism.” According to Stepman, the problems in Cuba are nothing new. 

“Cuba promotes itself as a world-class health care powerhouse,” The Wall Street Journal noted. “But as the scabies epidemic shows, the decrepit hospital and outpatient network cannot even tend to run-of-the-mill illnesses, never mind COVID-19.”

In other words, this isn’t just an outlier from a once-in-a-century pandemic. Instead, it’s the latest catastrophe in a long history of failure and dysfunction. The material deprivation Cubans frequently face is hardly imaginable to the average American.

Remember when the U.S. was hit with a toilet paper “shortage” in the early days of the pandemic? It was short-lived and hardly a problem at all. More than a few Americans likely still have huge stockpile in their homes after panic-buying a lifetime supply.

Shortages far, far worse than what Americans have ever experienced are a regular occurrence for our Caribbean Island neighbor, even in prosperous times.

The protests are a result of more than a half-century of misrule under the Marxist regime that began with Fidel Castro. In a country in which freedoms of speech and assembly are deeply controlled by the government, many have had enough and are willing to take to the streets anyway.

The sheer economic deprivations are one thing, but even more unimaginable for most Americans to even contemplate is life under ruthless totalitarianism.

            An “interesting phenomenon” is the fact that some of the Cuban protesters were carrying the American flag. It seems that the Stars and Stripes are more important to the Cubans than for some Americans. I wonder if it is possible to trade the socialists and communists in the United States for the Cubans who are protesting for freedom and liberty. It is just a thought, but it should be considered.

            People living in America and enjoying the freedom and liberty of this nation are protesting the Stars and Stripes, saying that the flag is oppressive. To the Cubans, the American flag represents freedom. People, who want to change our economy into socialism because the free-market system is bad, should move to Cuba where they could enjoy the socialistic lifestyle. I feel certain that the Cubans living under totalitarianism would be grateful for the freedoms and liberties of America. I notice that the American socialists have been quiet the past few days. It appears that the Cuban protests are showing that socialism is not that great!