Give this guy a Babalu t-shirt!
Anyway, there's a great quote from the piece which pretty much sums up the profound manner in which Cuban-American hardliners choose their candidates.
For many Cuban Americans like Laura Vianello, the Democratic party still have not been forgiven for President John F Kennedy's failure to properly back up the Cuban expats who tried to topple the Castro regime in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
She lost three uncles in the invasion, a memorial to which stands prominently in the street in Little Havana.
"Most Cubans here in Miami are Republican by tradition. You could put the Devil up there as a candidate and we would vote for him," she said.
Wow.
And, as if on cue, Babalu contributer Alberto de la Cruz pens a critical post today on "the catholic from Massachusetts." That's how Alberto refers to the man the rest of the world knows as John F. Kennedy.
- via Blast Off!
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12 comments:
I have a feeling that Alberto refers to MLK as "the Negro from Georgia."
Laura seems to forget that the Bay of Pigs was dreamed up by Republicans in the Eisenhower administration who assured JFK, a month in office, that it would be a "cakewalk." (Gee, that sounds familiar.) Kennedy's mistake was going along with it in the first place.
But then, Laura probably blames 9/11 on Bill Clinton.
Any mention of little Elian? I'd have figured that scab was a bit more ripe for the picking than the Bay of Pigs.
Mustang Bobby,
The operation was concocted during the Eisenhower administration. The decision to withold air support was made by the Kennedy administration. I won't get into what-ifs, because that's not my point. I'm just pointing out facts, just like you seemed to be.
If your point is that the exile community, generally, has held this against the D's a unreasonably long time, I won't disagree with you.
But please, don't pretend to be Mr. Smarty Pants, unless you are absolutely sure you are Mr. Smarty Pants.
PS- Incertus, Elian is indeed a scab. BoP, it seems, is the original wound.
nonee moose:
I stated a fact. If that makes me Mr. Smarty Pants, wev.
The beauty of America is that allows you to bite the hand that feeds you.
It allows you to spit in the face of the party who gave you the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which automatically gave Cubans permanent residency just by being in the U.S., and allowed 125,000 Cubans to enter the U.S. during the Mariel boatlift.
Some call that freedom. I call that ungratefulness.
Bobby... half a fact. Don't be lazy.
Carlos, ungratefulness is in the eye of the beholder, wouldn't you say? Otherwise, let's not protest anything the party-in-power does...
You'd shrivel up like a raisin, dude. Careful what you wish for.
1. A "party" didn't give Cubans anything, it was a president and a congress -remember, after they are elected they act for everybody or at least one hopes.
2. Kennedy acted in the best interests of the US, which was his duty as president. He should have scraped the whole thing IMO.
3. But in any case, holding BOP against Kennedy and the Dems has always been a calculated political move to justify allegiance to one political party, exploited by those who want to get elected and parroted by the mindless drones.
4. As said many times, if the Cuban exiles who perpetuate those myths and the allegiance to the GOP based on Cuba really cared about the island, they should advocate pragmatism and non-partisanship, ala AIPAC. Antagonizing one of the two major parties while pledging unconditional support for the other is just throwing your vote and your influence away, as history has demonstrated.
5. There's a pretty good case that Cuban Americans (catholic, conservative, hard workers who like to enjoy the fruits of their labor) would be Republicans anyway. To base it on Kennedy and BOP and all the other myths of the exile canon is political folly.
nonee,
I don't know what you're talking about. It's over my head. "shrivel like a raisin"?
Alex,
1. It was a democratic president and a democratic controlled congress (both senate and house of representatives) that passed the Cuban Adjustment Act.
2. Kennedy's mistake was that he called off the operation once it began because he discovered the Soviets were aware of the U.S. involvement when the plan was to make it seem as if it were only the Cubans taking over their own island.
So he did sell them out. But to hold that against the party 40 years later when the republicans haven't done a damn thing for Cuba is mindless.
3. Cuban exiles have proven no different than red state working class Americans when it comes the mindless drones, unfortunately.
4. Agreed.
5. Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. are just as hard-working, just as religious and just as socially conservative as many Cuban exiles, yet they tend to vote democrat.
I know many people would argue that the Cuban community is the most successful Hispanic group in the U.S., which is true, but many people tend to use this fact to say the Mexican community is lazy and not as achieving.
But's it's much easier to succeed when you have the support of the U.S. government rather than have to constantly worry that they're going to deport you.
Another thing that is rarely talked about is that there was some serious discrimination against Cubans during the 1960s and 1970s. And local politics was dominated by democrats.
So the republican party enabled the Cubans to gain a foothold in Miami politics and they haven't looked back since.
But political parties change. The republicans are no longer the party of Lincoln. And the democrats are no longer the southern Dixiecrat party that created the KKK.
And the Cuban community has been voting against their interests since the 1990s when the neo-cons took over the party.
Second and third generation Mexican Americans vote Republican. Especially in Texas. If it wasn't for the immigration issue -which Cubans are inoculate against because of the CAA- Mexicans would agree with conservatism on most social issues and the Republicans would have a fertile ground to sow votes. BTW, it's not an argument but a fact, according to the Census Cubans have the highest HHI among Hispanic groups in the US.
Alex,
Second and third generation Mexican Americans living in Texas vote republican because like most Texans, they consider themselves Texans, not Mexicans, not Americans.
And Texans are just Texans. They gave us Bush and they will try their hardest to give us McCain.
But the Mexican Americans in New Mexico, Arizona, California and Colorado are strongly democratic, especially the second and third generations.
Besides, being Catholic does not make you part of the "Christian Base". The Christian Base actually believes that Catholics are a cult because they worship saints more than the Bible.
And it's not just the immigration issue that makes Mexican Americans vote democrat, it's also the labor issue.
They might not agree with abortion but they realize that is a minor issue compared to the fight for fair wages, which would allow them to live the American Dream.
And they know their best chances of acquiring fair wages is through the democrats.
And about the Cuban prosperity thing, I did say it was a fact. Nobody can deny that.
But some Cubans like to use that fact as an argument to put the Mexicans down as lazy, unambitious people, which is not true.
I know you don't do that, Alex, but it's not uncommon for it to be said, especially in places like Babalu.
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