If you think Cuba is moving closer to democracy, I've got a swamp outside Havana to sell you. In the mind of Fidel Castro, it's just the opposite.
The former Cuban leader thinks the U.S. is moving closer to
Not only is he about to entertain a softened-up, legacy-seeking American president, he's having a bromance with a candidate he hopes will replace Barack Obama in January: Bernie Sanders.
Frail as he is at age 89, Fidel gave an impressive four-hour speech in October to a crowd of thousands in the Cuban capital, and the chief subject of his address was The Bern.
“Comrades, I speak before you today because I feel energized by this new America that is being born in front of our eyes ... Socialism is coming to America, and its name is Bernie Sanders, the new face of Socialism” he said to an exalted crowd.
“We have seen how Obama has brought universal health care to America, and now we have this presidential candidate, this Bernie Sanders, who in some way reminds me of my late friend Hugo Chavez in his will to bring Socialism to the American people.” By all accounts, he was speaking with passion.
“Americans have witnessed the utter failure of Capitalism, the destruction of its middle class and is tired of the endless wars” said Fidel. “The Cuban model has proved its superiority and Americans now see through the government propaganda and now praise our country’s centralized economy, our health care system, our education system: Americans are hungry for Socialism,” he chanted under a round of applause.
Fidel and Bernie have never met. But, judging from comments Bernie made earlier in his career, the two have an unmistakable mutual-admiration thing going on.
In a 1985 interview with government-access Vermont TV, he praised the Cuban dictator, claiming “he educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed society. ... The heritage of Castro will be felt for generations to come, he is an example for his people, for America and for the world. One day, in the future, Americans will embrace Socialism, but we are still far from that day.” He later showed his affection by traveling to Havana and meeting with its mayor.
Bernie's effusive praise and Fidel's praise right back just might present a problem for the Vermont senator when he brings his campaign to South Florida. That's where some 700,000 Cuban-Americans live and vote.
How pleased will they be to greet a candidate who wins praise from the Communist who robbed them, their families and everyone they knew of their livelihoods, possessions, birthplace, religion and freedom?
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, is among those of Cuban heritage who are appalled at Bernie's Fidel friendship. She stopped short of predicting it could bring out Cuban voters to vote against him, but she did tell Sunshine State News this:
"It is concerning that any candidate would praise a murderous dictator who is hostile to our nation and a system of government that is anti-freedom. It's ironic that any candidate for political office in our great republic would praise a Communist regime that throws anyone with a semblance of independent thought in jail. I would encourage Castro apologists to press for the extradition of the murderers of American pilots flying Brothers to the Rescue planes and all fugitives from American justice instead of continuing to empower a regime that has no regard for human life."
In fact, if Bernie Sanders were applying for a job with FBI today, he wouldn't pass the background check.
An editorial Feb. 17 in Investor's Daily asks if Bernie Sanders is, as he claims, just a "democratic Socialist" -- or "an out-and-out Marxist"?
The newspaper repeats a story the Israeli press broke earlier this month that Bernie, who is Jewish, spent several months at an Israeli commune co-founded by a Soviet spy. The revelation is just now wending its way through the American media, where it’s been confirmed by the liberal New York Times, though the Times buried the story on its back pages. Read about it here.
True, it was 50 years ago, but what followed were years of affiliation with far left, even Communist organizations: a honeymoon with his second wife in the USSR, a display of the soviet flag on the wall in his office while he was mayor of Burlington, VT, and in 1985 -- defying President Reagan’s embargo on communist-controlled Nicaragua -- traveling to Managua to attend, along with Soviet officials, an anti-U.S. rally sponsored by the Sandinistas. There is far more.
In 1989, with the West on the verge of winning the Cold War, says Investor's Daily, Bernie addressed the national conference of the U.S. Peace Council, "a known front for the Communist Party USA," whose members swore an oath to “the triumph of Soviet power in the U.S.”
Concludes the editorial, "This is what Sanders really means by 'political revolution,' a battle cry he mouthed no fewer than four times during a recent national debate."
Americans should look a little deeper, know exactly what "democratic Socialism" Bernie-style means if they intend to pull the lever that could make him president of the United States.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
