Cuban-Americans are ecstatic over the protests erupting in Cuba against socialism.
What nonsense! With the notable exception of Cuban-American libertarians, many Cuban-Americans are no more against socialism than the average Cuban citizen is. They just want a pro-Pentagon, pro-CIA regime in Cuba managing their socialist system.
Ask any Cuban-American if he favors the immediate repeal of Social Security here in the United States. Many of them will go ballistic. “Of course I do not favor the repeal of this government program,” they will respond. “I love the poor, needy, and disadvantaged. If the federal government were not providing retirement pay to seniors, they would be dying in the streets.”
But that’s exactly the position of the socialist regime in Cuba. They have Social Security too. They might not call it by that name, but it’s the same concept, one that holds that it is the duty of government to take care of older people with a monthly stipend.
In fact, the idea of Social Security actually originated among socialists in Germany in the late 1800s. It was later imported into the United States, where it became a permanent part of America’s economic system in the 1930s during the regime of President Franklin Roosevelt.
Prior to that, the American people had lived without this socialist program for more than a century. In fact, Americans also lived without a federal income tax for more than 100 years. No one died in the streets.
In the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson built on FDR’s welfare-state philosophy by securing the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid, two other socialist programs that also originated among German socialists in the late 1800s.
Ask Cuban-Americans if they favor the repeal of Medicare and Medicaid. Again, many of them will all go ballistic. “Of course not! Without these two programs, people would be dying in the streets,” they exclaim.
But that’s precisely how the socialists in Cuba view things. As socialists, Cubans, like many Cuban-Americans, believe that it is the role of government to provide healthcare to people. The difference is that in Cuba the government provides “free” healthcare to everyone, not just the elderly and poor, as American socialists do.
Of course, given the perpetual healthcare crisis in America, American leftists now want to do what the Cubans have done — have the federal government provide “free” healthcare for everyone. Of course, they don’t call it socialism. They call it reforming America’s “free enterprise” system, just as Roosevelt did.
What about education? In Cuba, the state runs the educational system. In that way, the Cuban government can inculcate the values of socialism, regimentation, conformity, and patriotism within the citizenry.
But that’s how it’s also done here in the United States! And guess who are the biggest supporters of America’s educational system. You guessed it — Cuban-Americans! Ask any Cuban-American if he favors abolishing the public (i.e., government) school system and I will guarantee you that most of them will go ballistic, exclaiming, “Of course not! How would people get educated and become good little patriotic citizens if the state didn’t provide schools and enact compulsory-school attendance laws?” They just want the state schools to promote the “correct” values when it comes to good citizenship and patriotism, which means, of course, praising the Pentagon and the CIA for their many regime-change operations in Cuba since 1959.
How often do we hear the left in America lamenting the fact that there are super-rich people in American society? How often do we hear them complaining about America’s big disparities of wealth? Every day, right? That’s why they love the federal income tax. They see it as a way to equalize wealth in American society by having the government tax the rich and give the money to the poor.
That is precisely what the socialist regime in Cuba has done! The Cuban government has simply taken the leftist dream of wealth equalization to its logical conclusion. That’s why they nationalized all the businesses and mansions in the country. Today, most everyone (except Communist Party leaders) are equal in terms of wealth. They all have nothing. Leftists are ecstatic over this forced equalization of wealth even though everyone is now on the verge of starvation.
Of course, leftists blame the dismal economic state in Cuba solely on the brutal U.S. embargo. They cannot bring themselves to see that it is both the embargo and Cuban socialism that have squeezed the economic lifeblood out of the Cuban people. For their part, many Cuban-Americans are loathe to talk about the embargo. They do everything they can to minimize the horrific damage that it has inflicted on the Cuban people.
Let’s talk about the U.S. embargo on Cuba. It would be difficult to find a more direct infringement on the economic liberty, freedom of travel, and private-property rights of the American people. If an American, for example, is caught traveling to Cuba and spending money there without the official permission of the U.S. government, he is arrested by U.S. officials on his return, prosecuted, convicted, incarcerated, and fined.
Yet, many Cuban-Americans have no problems with that. They love the embargo. That’s because they don’t see anything wrong with government controlling people’s economic activities and punishing people for spending their money in unapproved ways, which is what socialism is all about. Moreover, in the minds of many Cuban-Americans, if the rights and liberties of the American people have to be sacrificed in order to reinstall a pro-Pentagon, pro-CIA regime in Cuba, so be it.
No doubt there are also plenty of Cuban-Americans who would favor another CIA-sponsored invasion of Cuba, or more CIA-orchestrated assassinations plots against Cuban leaders, or more CIA-sponsored acts of terrorism inside Cuba, and even another Pentagon-sponsored Operation Northwoods to provide a fraudulent excuse to invade Cuba and install another pro-Pentagon, pro-CIA regime. In other words, many Cuban-Americans still want the U.S. government to be their daddy, which is the mindset of socialists everywhere.
What’s the best thing that Americans could do for the Cuban people and others around the world? Americans should reject the socialism favored by many Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and others and instead lead the world out of the socialist morass by dismantling, repealing, and abolishing America’s socialist programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public (i.e., government) schooling, income taxation, and all the rest of the welfare state. Restoring economic liberty, educational liberty, healthcare liberty, private-property rights, and freedom of travel to Americans would provide a model for many Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and other socialists to emulate.