People are starting to run away from me the minute they see me coming. I have chewed ears off here at CPAC. every blogger, every media person, every politician, every candidate, even the Nigerian cab drivers have gotten the Cuba Schpiel from yours truly.
Im pretty sure everyone here has already gotten a quick Cuban reality lesson courtesy of Babalu Blog.
And it’s only day 2.
Have a question for you Val,
From your interactions with the people at CPAC. Are you getting a sense that they really care about the Cuban reality?
The sad reality is the majority of the world don’t really gives a smooth fart about us, our generation, or The Lost “Pearl of the Antilles.”
Does’t*
Doesn’t*
Heck, note that Marco Rubio himself, though mentioning his parents and grandparents seemed to carefully skirt specifically mentioning Castro or Cuba–but specifically mentioned Iran and Israel. Smart politics, no doubt.
Keep it up. I have done the same, and we very few exceptions, it has at least moved people to look into the real Cuba.
Gotta keep trying. Maybe all our attempts will reach a critical mass, a tipping point, and suddenly people will understand the truth.
ATTABOY Val, Keep up the good work.
As to the other comments regarding Cuba/Castro…let’s face it too many have quit trying but perhaps with Rubio in the Senate and sure to be high profile, changes of attitude may be on the horizon.
ALERT from The Hill:
Crist and Rubio to “debate” in March on the Sunday morning shows on FOX and NBC.
HEH! Rubio has one condition in his agreement:
“[…] but Rubio will only agree to a Meet appearance if it’s televised AFTER Fox.
“FOX Network has shown serious interest in this primary campaign since day one and was the first national news organization to extend an invitation for a debate,” a spokesman for Rubio tells RealClearPolitics. “Marco Rubio gladly accepted immediately and will be happy to debate Charlie Crist on Meet the Press or anywhere else after he has kept his commitment to have the first debate on FOX on March 28.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/82389-rubio-crist-to-debate-on-meet-the-press
You can bend my ear anytime. Don’t forget to send me the link about the story you told me Friday about your father.
While here at CPAC I have also talked up the Cuba issue. I spent a lot of time with Campaign for Liberty and Students for Liberty because I was also there primarily to support GOProud, and most of their support was coming from the libertarian wing of conservatism. That said, it became really frustrating to debate foreign policy with libertarians, especially the Ron Paul zombies so prevalent here. To begin with, his cult status with these students is creepy. Please kids – question authority! Anyway, for bright kids that go against the entrenched liberal academia at their schools, they have a strange syncophany with Ron Paul and everything he says and espouses. But I think I made some headway as long as I could get quality time WITH INDIVIDUALS, not a group (group-think seems to overtake them when in a pack). I think having documentaries such as “The Stoning of Zoraya M” (I highly recommend everyone see this!) screened here was very important. I noticed that the Campaign for Liberty gentleman I had the Cuba discussion with was there for that screening after I had my Cuba discussion with him and mentioned that anti-gay violence occurred in Iran in addition to the barbaric practice of stoning (and only women – men are NEVER stoned!). I asked him how he could allow such barbarity to take place in the world without repurcussions?! I also stressed to him that American Exceptionalism (a big theme at CPAC) extends to its defense of liberty everywhere. America is admired the world over precisely because they know America will stand with them in the defense of liberty and justice. Maybe not with military intervention every time, but always with moral force and unequivocation. But by and large…the focus is on righting OUR ship before we think too much of messig anywhere else in the world right now.