December 24, 2014 5:49 AM

Cuba? It's the Devil. Communist China? Yeah, but who else will make our iPhones??

I’ve spent enough time in Miami to understand that Cuba and its future is a hot button issue . Much of south Florida’s Cuban-American community is deeply and unalterably opposed to loosening the embargo on Cuba that’s been in place for 50+ years until the Castro regime falls and democracy in some form or fashion is restored to the island. An entire community with their heels firmly dug in is part of what has made pressing for change so difficult, even now. It can no longer be argued that the embargo is successful and must be continued, not after more than 50 years and a second Castro in power. Yet any attempt to explore a change in policy has been met with implacable resistance. Now President Obama, who can’t run for reelection and need no longer answer to Conservative Cuban-Americans, has decided that the time has come to change the paradigm, to engage Cuba in the hope that creating a partnership will lead to changes the embargo never had any hope of creating.

It’s been said that insanity is repeating the same actions while hoping for different results, and yet that’s exactly what the Cuban-American community has been demanding. The embargo, initially designed to squeeze Cuba economically and force Castro from power, hasn’t worked. Fifty-plus years has demonstrated that to be the unchanging reality…yet Cuban-Americans have resisted doing anything different. It’s illogical, but the Cuban-American community’s enormous financial and political clout has helped block anything redolent of a change in policy over the years.

What’s truly nonsensical about the Cuban embargo is that Conservatives, in Congress and in the Cuban-American community, are incensed at the idea that America would do business with a Communist regime with an execrale human rights record. Fair enough…but how then does one explain the billions of dollars in business done each and every year with Communist China?

Go ahead. I’ll wait….

Got nothing? I thought not…because there’s simply no logical explanation for such a glaring double standard. I applaud Barack Obama for doing the right thing, and better late than never. It’s time the Cuban diaspora was allowed the opportunity to be reunited with their families and their heritage.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 24, 2014 5:49 AM.

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