A Washington Post reporter acknowledged that many Democrats do not want to “go hard” on the Cuban government because they agree with many of its policies.
Toluse Olorunnipa — who reports for The Washington Post primarily on racial justice issues and serves as a CNN contributor — noted that progressives are fond of socialist policies favored by Cuba’s communist regime.
The Washington Post’s Toluse Olorunnipa: Many Democrats don’t want “to go hard” on Cuba because they agree with Cuba’s socialism pic.twitter.com/O7O7N7NKo1
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 18, 2021
“They are really being led by the progressive wing of their party, and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party does not want to go hard against Cuba, against some of the things that the Castro regime may have been a part of,” remarked Olorunnipa on CNN’s “Inside Politics” Sunday.
“In part, because there are some Democrats, there are some progressives who agree with some of those things,” he added. “They agree with universal health care, they agree with some of the programs that were in place in a more socialist kind of society.”
“The far left is driving the Democrat Party’s agenda, and they want to enact many of Cuba’s dangerous policies here in the U.S.,” responded GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on social media.
The far left is driving the Democrat Party’s agenda, and they want to enact many of Cuba’s dangerous policies here in the U.S.https://t.co/mY4Kwm6NVR
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) July 18, 2021
“Radical Democrats have been trying to push socialism in America for years,” said GOP National Spokesman Paris Dennard. “Liberals have been pushing an anti patriotism … narrative. Is anyone surprised that many Democrats and the Biden White House aren’t stronger in denouncing communism & socialism?”
Radical Democrats have been trying to push socialism in America for years.
Liberals have been pushing an anti patriotism, American 🇺🇸 narrative.
Is anyone surprised that many Democrats and the Biden White House aren’t stronger in denouncing communism & socialism? #SOSCuba https://t.co/XSoixgwQ3o
— PARIS (@PARISDENNARD) July 18, 2021
As The Daily Wire reported, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — a leading progressive — emphasized the purported role of the American embargo in worsening Cuba’s conditions in her statement about the protests.
“We are seeing Cubans rise up and protest for their rights like never before,” she remarked. “We stand in solidarity with them, and we condemn the anti-democratic actions led by President Diaz-Canel. The suppression of the media, speech, and protest are all gross violations of civil rights.”
“We also must name the U.S. contribution to Cuban suffering: our sixty-year-old embargo,” she continued. “Last month, once again, the U.N. voted overwhelmingly to call on the United States to lift its embargo on Cuba. The embargo is absurdly cruel and, like too many other U.S. policies targeting Latin Americans, the cruelty is the point. I outright reject the Biden administration’s defense of the embargo. It is never acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against everyday people.”
For the past several decades, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been apologetic toward the Castro regime.
“But I remember for some reason rather being very excited when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba, and it just seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against rather ugly rich people,” Sanders said of his teenage years. “And I remember watching the Nixon-Kennedy debates and I was very excited and impressed about the Cuban revolution… And Kennedy was saying that Nixon was too soft on communism… I actually got up from the room and almost left to puke.”
Speaking at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) declared that socialist-leaning Democrats ought to move to Cuba: “Just once I want to see some left-wing socialist — I want to see Bernie Sanders, I want to see Elizabeth Warren, I want to see AOC go down to Key West, get on a raft, and sail 90 miles south to the socialist paradise.”
“Ronald Reagan said years ago the thing the Left never seems to understand is the Berlin Wall that divided East Germany from West Germany, the Berlin Wall, the machine guns all point in one direction,” Cruz noted. “The analogy I’m fond of using as a Cuban-Americans is the thing that liberals never seem to understand if you go down to Key West, is the rafts are only going one direction.”