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| Back in the early days of my liberalism. |
I used to like Bernie Sanders—until last week, when he started praising Fidel Castro’s achievements in the fields of education and medicine. It may seem odd that I, the child of Miami Cuban exiles, would sympathize with socialism, but I don’t believe a Sanders presidency could ever be anything beyond a mild deterrent to the current excesses of capitalism in this country.
This will NEVER, in our wildest dreams, become a socialist nation—particularly not if we’re counting, as we always have, on capitalists funding our American brand of socialism. That is the
American Way, and it puzzles the hell out of European socialists, but there it is.
Upton Sinclair once wrote that Americans will take socialism, but not the label (what are Social Security and Medicare but a form of socialism, anyway?). The current, virulent opposition to socialism is just rich people trying to get over, trying to get richer at everyone else’s expense.
You’d think they’d gladly spare a couple of bucks to help fund free education and health care for less fortunate compatriots, but no, they want to keep it all. They have no wish to give ANYTHING back to the system that made them rich, so they raise the specter of socialism to scare the ignorant poor into going against their own interests.
As for me being a progressive AND the child of Cuban exiles, it’s simple: I went to school when the winds of social reform were still blowing through the nation, and liberalism was still in the air that I breathed whenever I stepped out of our Cuban home. I became a liberal, like my American classmates, like most of the kids I knew at the time.
My parents, to their credit, never tried to interfere with the zeitgeist, but allowed my two brothers and I to develop our own political ideas. To be sure, they mocked us ruthlessly whenever we tried
explaining ourselves, but that was the extent of their disapproval.
For them, one thing was not negotiable, though: their opposition to Fidel Castro. But that was okay with me, because I never saw the contradiction between being a progressive and opposing a regime that stifles the free exchange of ideas, to the point of killing dissidents. I still don’t. I’m a liberal who dislikes the Castros, and that’s not such a stretch.
Which is why I was appalled at Sanders’ insistence that yes, Castro did some bad things, but also had some wonderful achievements. Even if that were true, I wonder how he could’ve been so stupid as to trounce on the sensibilities of so many people whose lives were upended by Castro’s power grab. (What kind of a politician is he, anyway?)
On the subject of Sanders’ conditioned praise for Castro, I read somewhere that Hitler, too, may have done some positive things for the German people, such as raising their morale and sense of patriotism—but he did so much evil that bringing up the good would be tantamount to moral heresy. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
We Cubans have always thought of pro Castro Americans as naive and misinformed, seeing the Cuban Revolution mostly in terms that promote whatever point they’re trying to make about American politics. If you research online in English, you’ll see only praise for Castro’s achievements in education and medicine.
But if you can read Spanish, it’s a different story.
You’ll find out about the crumbling infrastructure in Cuban schools so poorly ventilated, that parents are asked to contribute towards installing fans—and guaranteed a cool spot for their child if they do. You’ll discover the stories of grammar teachers who teach egregious grammatical mistakes. Of teachers so underpaid, that they’re currently leaving the system in droves, or accepting bribes to award passing grades (something also said about medical specialists, who are quicker to see patients bearing gifts.) You’ll find out about Cuban doctors so poorly trained, they’re unable to obtain medical certification in other countries.
Won’t somebody translate these stories and send them to Bernie Sanders? And then please, give Elizabeth Warren a second look?
