Thursday Poll
Let's see where we stand today on the following issue:
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Those people who advocate for the U.S. to "normalize" relations with Cuba must be made to understand that such a normalization would include having "normal" immigration policies. And by "normal" that means that it will be a bit harder than stepping on dry land. Cuban "migrants" who arrive illegally will have to face possible deportation. That's normal for the U.S.
Main thing; Mexicans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, etc. all have to learn how Obama Democrats look down and discriminate against them in favor of those (mostly white, Cubans.) These Cubans' arrogant and powerful political lobby gives Cubans their cake (fast track to citizenship as "refugees") and allows them to eat it (same travel, remittances rights as those among the barefoot, swarthy masses who stood in line, jumped through all the hoops and played by the residency hand-book.)
If I was one a Dem (get it? haha!) I'd be outraged! Maybe Yoani, over at Huff Post, can inform Democrats of this shameless favoritism and bigotry by the very eaders THEY ELECTED! We'll surely never make the point to these wronged parties from here.
It says I already voted for this ???????????
I haven't
At 195 votes, the numbers are pretty close. 52 yes, 48 no.
The Cuban Adjustment Act should've been repealed back in the 1970s when "Jimma Cartah" allowed Cuban-Americans to travel freely to Cuba to "visit family."
When I was in High School, the supervisor I had at Richard's Department Store, (where I had a part-time job) was Hungarian. Because of her Political Refugee status, she couldn't go back home to visit family.
Here's my cold-blooded view of this issue - No Mas! The Act has outlived its original intent. The regime now exploits the '66 Act to rid itself of discontented 'mouths to feed', who then help maintain the dictatorship by 'feeding' the ones who remain on the island. The sad truth is that the populace will never seek change as long as they can easily bleed over to the US, or receive uncontrolled assistance from here. Dropping the '66 Act will remove one of the 'pull' factors that draws them here.
Just take a poll of those who have arrived over the past 15 years to see who they would have voted for in NOV and I bet you it won't be pretty. They flee a worthless system that drives them away, but they seem to sympathize with the political philosophy of the Democrats, with all their pseudo-socialist policies and their support for softening our stance against the Castro's. I guarantee that Fidel laughs his ass off when he realizes how he's exploited human frailties to his advantage.
GRANMA screams against "La Ley Asesina de Ajuste", but Fidel realizes what a windfall it is for him. I think most of us agree that change must come from within Cuba, but that's never going to happen as long as the escape valves off the island remain. Put the lid on that boiling pot and lets see how much more the Cuban people will put up with. Otherwise, sadly, I see the dictatorship hanging on for many more years. Sorry, but that's the cold, hard truth as I see it.
I can already hear the crying about the insensitivity of such a view, how callous it is to think that. Well, stop and think about it for a few minutes.......now tell me it isn't so, no matter how painful it may be to admit it is so...
BTW, I have plenty of family on the island.
Mambí...we mostly agree on this subject, but I have to take issue with one thing.
I hear this a lot, about how the new arrivals trend to vote Democrat, and how bad that is. And while I would much rather see them vote Repub, if we truly believe in the spirit of this nation, then we have to respect their right to cast their vote freely.
That is after all, what Cubans in the Island lack, and why we came here.
Henry...it can't be called a "normalization" until travel is unrestricted both ways.
It isn't about whether Cubans here can freely travel back to Cuba...as citizens, we already have the freedom to travel to Cuba.
I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone this, but there are no laws stopping US citizens from traveling to Cuba, the applicable law here forbids US citizens NOT from traveling to Cuba, but rather from spending money in Cuba, which is a de facto travel restriction, traveling abroad without spending money for food, accommodations, etc being pretty much impossible.
Normalization is not about whether we, as American citizens, can exercise OUR rights, but rather about whether or not the Cubans in the Island will ever achieve that level of freedom.
So, until Cubans can freely travel to the US, normalization is another of those meaningless words...like "transparency", or "change".
Luis, you're way off base on your critique. I Never said they couldn't vote. I simply pointed out an ugly reality that feeds this 50-year tragedy. Pretty platitudes aren't going to bring freedom to Cuba. Either we're honest and call out the hypocrites and facilitators, or we pack our bags up and give up on seeing the island free.
I Never said they couldn't vote. I simply pointed out an ugly reality that feeds this 50-year tragedy.
Mambí, if I came across as suggesting that you objected to their being able to vote, my apologies...it's not the idea that I meant to convey. What caught my eyes, was the criticism of their voting for what you and I see (correctly I may add) as voting for the American version of the ideology they fled from.
Living in South Florida, and among old school Cuban Republican voters, I hear the criticism of those Cubans who vote Democrat.
I am perplexed by people who gave up a Homeland in search of political freedom, having an expectation of others that runs against the grain of that very freedom.
Let's just say Cuba's main problem has long been Cubans themselves. Otherwise, Cuba might not be Switzerland, but it wouldn't be a nightmarish totalitarian third world hellhole, even though it was once well on its way to being far, FAR better off.
Luis and Mambi, let me explain the way I see it. What you guys are talking about is very relevant because of all the talk of the "shift" among Cuban-Americans from being conservative Republicans to being liberal Democrats.
The theory of the shift states that shift is occurring in two places:
1. The children and grandchildren of exiles that don't care about Cuba and are becoming Democrats because "naturally" liberalism is superior (their argument). I could write a book about how this just not so. But that's not the area we're talking about here.
2. The waves of recent immigrants that were brought up in communism and see value in socialism and suffer hardships because of the "hard line" policies enacted by those that came before them.
Let me explain something. There is no doubt that the rhetoric of candidates like Joe Garcia and Raul Martinez was designed to appeal to his second group. It didn't work and won't work. Here's why.
First of all the people that might have these attitudes are very recent arrivals. As you all know, even for Cubans the process for becoming a citizen is long and you must be a citizen to vote. The process of becoming a citizen is also a self-segregating one. Not every Cuban that comes over becomes a citizen even if they are eligible. As years pass and the recent immigrant becomes the not so recent immigrant he learns how America REALLY works (as opposed to what they were taught in Cuba) and unlearn a lot of the other fallacies about Cuba. By the time a Cuban becomes a registered voter something like 5-10 years have passed.
Think about this. To me, Mariel was yesterday. But it was 28+ years ago. Those "Marielitos" voted overwhelmingly for John McCain, even according to the Democrat pollsters. In the past, the people who advocate for the shift used to divide the exile into two periods: before 1980 and after 1980. But it's increasingly hard to distinguish between 1980s Cuban refugees and the earlier ones. So they've shifted the definitions and are now focusing on those that came in the 1990s and 2000s. I predict that the definitions will continue to change to accommodate their theories. Think about this. A balsero that came in 1994 has already been in the country for FIFTEEN years. That person probably doesn't have immediate family members in Cuba any more. He's been swallowed into the greater Cuban exile community and listens to Cuban exile radio.
My point is that when it comes specifically to voting patterns we're not going to see monumental shifts. The Democrats were making small gains among Cubans until Elian. And then Bush won the Cuban vote overwhelmingly in two elections. Obama made some headway but probably for the same reasons everyday Americans voted for him. Bush fatigue that has nothing to do with Cuba or political ideology.