In one of his few good decisions (and desperately in search of a positive legacy item), President Obama announced his plan to normalize relations with Cuba. It is a smart gesture of reconciliation that, coupled with free trade, will make a friend of an enemy 90 miles to our south.
We won this not because of the embargo (Cubans could always get any goods they wanted from the same places we get ours Mexico, Vietnam, China), but because it highlighted that socialism does not work for the people. However, it worked for the Castros, whose net worth tops $1 billion. Just imagine how much they would have if they were not government workers and socialists who “share the wealth.”
This move is a good sign and a clear repudiation of the flawed, corrupt and unsustainable socialist ideology. A stark rejection of socialist policies has happened twice in two months, if you count our midterm elections.
Fifty years of centralized, command-and-control government rule of the economy, supposedly “free” health care and Soviet-style repression have devastated Cuba’s economy. Maybe the best thing that can happen here is that Obama will realize his policies are sending America in that direction. If our kids ever needed a test case of socialism and its devastating effects on a once-vibrant nation, they need look no farther than Cuba.
Fidel Castro’s policies are similar to Obama’s: He nationalized health care. He put severe regulations on his people (czars, EPA, etc.). He used government to go after his political enemies (IRS and Lois Lerner). He blamed his own failings on others, circumventing their free speech (imprisoning a filmmaker after blaming him for Benghazi) and arresting them. He took over large pieces of the economy (Obamacare commandeered one-seventh of the U.S. economy). Fidel spied on and intimidated journalists (Fox News’ James Rosen and others who were wiretapped). Both have scores of untried prisoners rotting away in Cuban jails (Gitmo). Both vilified capitalists and took their property to give to their cronies (the Chrysler bailout, which put unions ahead of secured creditors).
Perhaps out of his personal respect for their work, Obama risks legitimizing the Castro brothers. Instead, Mr. Obama must highlight why Cuba failed: Socialism doesn’t work. Capitalism, entrepreneurship, minimal government, freedom, property rights, free trade and the rule of law must exist for a society to prosper.
Fidel, the founder of the regime, and his younger brother Raul (which is Spanish for “Jeb”) can claim victory. But to those paying attention, socialism and its derivative, communism, have failed the citizens every time they have been tried. It is an easy sale: I will take from the nation’s “rich” 49 percent and give to the “less fortunate” 51 percent. What happens is the 49 percent leave or stop working as hard to support the 51 percent. Cronyism takes over and runs the economy into the ground. Obama and Democrats, please take notice.
Normalization began with negotiations to free an American government worker sent to Cuba to install the Internet for the Jewish community there. Obama traded several Cubans held in America for Alan Gross and three middle infielders. The State Department is still waiting for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s approval of the deal, but it seems all but done. Out of habit, the Yankees signed the 65-year-old Gross to a three-year, $20 million deal.
Obama’s modus operandi in these situations is becoming clear. He sends Jay-Z and Beyonc to Cuba to soften things up and sends Dennis Rodman to North Korea. He also had the pope for cover. Pope Benedict went to Cuba three years ago to begin the detente between our nations. You know you are being treated badly by your government when a charismatic German’s arrival is considered liberating.
It was important to the scared and weak Obama administration, along with his friends in Hollywood, that they befriend the Castro brothers now. It was imperative for their safety that he act before James Franco and Seth Rogan play Fidel and Raul in an upcoming movie.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com.