The romanticization of foreign socialism from Democrats has risen greatly in the past few years, typically among younger voters that salivate over Scandavian-style entitlements, support large-scale public ownership, and the socialist stalwart – septuagenarian Bernie Sanders. Nevertheless, the far-left milieu of the Che Guevara shirt-wearing youths has started to rub off on a few more older lawmakers in the Democratic Party as a congressional candidate running in south Florida is reaching out to constituents in Little Havana by campaigning in the capital of Cuba itself – yes, stumping in a foreign country.
David Richardson, a member of the Florida state legislature running in the 27th Congressional District, hopped over the Florida Strait into Cuba this week on a two-day “listening tour,” according to the Miami Herald. On a mission to “better connect with a large constituency,” which apparently includes those in a foreign country, Richardson claims he wants to survey the economic and societal developments that have occurred in the Marxist state since President Barack Obama rolled back trade and travel restrictions in 2014. The nearly 60-year ban on Cuban relations began when Fidel Castro rose to power in the late 1950s, ushering in a one-party authoritarian regime after his consolidation of power following bloody rebellions.
Richardson’s staff denied that he will be meeting with anyone from the Cuban government, but Castro also denied that he was a communist to the press, then clandestinely met with representatives of the Popular Socialist Party to design the socialist state.
“A half-century of isolation did not achieve progress for the everyday Cuban, so I fully support a position of engagement with Cuban civil society,” Richardson said in a statement. Of course, the reason why the “everyday Cuban” didn’t achieve any sort of economic or societal progress was because of the prisoners of conscience were detained due to speaking out against the dictatorial regime, because just even thinking about the notion of freedom of speech would get one detained, tortured, and most likely executed by the government.
As a clear Obama apologist, Richardson wants, according to the report, “to see firsthand how rolling back travel and trade restrictions has changed the lives of the Cuban people, helped private Cuban entrepreneurs, and strengthened the connection between the residents of Little Havana and Havana.” Idealism, however, cannot wipe away 60 years of authoritarian effects and negative feelings from those who fled Cuba in fear. As one Russian revolutionary once said, “Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will,” a key provision of the modern progressive left.
It is possible that Richardson doesn’t realize that Miami’s Cuban exile community – featuring those who fled the island on rafts made of 50’s Chevrolets and oil drums tied together with clothesline string – is mainly known for its hard-line stance and general disgust for the repressive government, which is unlikely to change because of the end of the embargo. Moreover, they disapprove of the American government’s policy under Obama of increasing trade relations and the idealization of a sinister political history.
Currently, more than half of Miami-based Cuban ex-pats oppose the lifting of the U.S. embargo, adding to the polarizing sentiment between the two countries. Still, Richardson will be the first congressional candidate, possibly the first candidate for anything above dog catcher, to visit the island since the middle of the 20th century.
He is challenging Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who staunchly opposed Obama’s rapprochement with the Castro regime. She also supports President Donald Trump’s decision to roll back some of those changes in 2017, famously announced the move in the heart of Little Havana. Ros-Lehtinen was also a part of the seven-member delegation who urged President Trump to indict Raul Castro – younger brother to leader Fidel and the most senior member of the Communist Party – for the 1996 incident in which two Miami rescue airplanes were shot down while flying volunteer missions to spot Cuban rafters adrift at sea.
The campaign tactics among Democrats throughout the country this midterm election season are clear – run left, as far left as possible. Running further left feeds the fire of the resistance sentiment had for the Trump Administration. Running left means one is socially-aware. Running left means one “cares” about all categorized and disenfranchised individuals in the populous, vanguarding the vouchsafing vestige of the vox populi.
Running further and further left will set a candidate out from the crowd, even if they run so far left they actually leave the country and end up in a socialist paradise, scratch that – socialist hell.
