Cuba

What do you think about Cuba? Let that settle in for a minute.






Good. Now let's get down to business. It occured to me the other day that this is yet another issue on which conservatives have gotten the jump on liberals (say, 40-years-ish jump). Yes, this happened while watching The Godfather, Part II. But in any event...odd are that you, as a liberal, don't really have a particularly well-thought-out set of views with regards to Cuba - either in terms of present policies or post-Castro. Mostly, it's probably pretty oppositional to the interests of the rabid-right-wing Cuban exile community - which is something of a mistake, on some things.

Conservatives have a completely coherent set of views regarding Cuba and a very particular set of policies to implement now and post-Castro. Namely - they hate Castro, can't wait until he's dead, and are chomping at the bit to attempt to both restore ownership of seized assets to the Cuban exiles and then privatize the rest. Suffice to say, they don't think all too much about what the actual current occupants of Cuban - save for the "freedom" they rather meaninglessly extol, freedom meaning, in their minds, a dead Castro.

Now. Castro sucks. He is an arrogant windbag, represses free speech, tortures dissidents. He's stuck with a failed economic system that leaves his people with near zero economic production, and one of the lowest standards of living in the world - though, it's true, with excellent health care and education, and a pretty shockingly high life expectancy given the standard of living.

But Castro - and his brother, who will likely succeed him - can't be gone quick enough for my tastes. When that happens - and it will, in 10-15 years' time - this will be an enormous opportunity for both the American Left and the United States to improve its image all over the world, particularly Latin America.

How? Well, my feeling is that Cuba - as a state with high education and health - is a perfect laboratory for what can happen when post-welfare state, post-IMF social democratic policies are put into place. There will be a substantial social democratic political presence on the island among intellectuals and the populace who value the good things that Cuba has while also hating Castro's repression, and it will be important for the Left of the United States to support that movement, and keep it from getting steamrolled by the Bacardis/GOP/other extractive interests.

The issues are not simple - property ownership is a tricky river to navigate when you realize that, in addition to the Bacardis, there were indeed many Coreleone-style asset-holders, whose assets were perhaps not entirely legitimately acquired to begin with. [Side note - of special importance to yours truly is the preservation of Havana Club Rum's independence, and keeping it from getting smashed by the Bacardis, who are nervous as all hell about Americans actually being able to drink rum that is, you know, good]. But there are ways to do foreign investment that are of benefit to local populations, as well as being profitable.

Now, I haven't laid out anything much specific here, with good reason - I don't know quite what I think, myself (I had absolutely no idea what to think of the Elian Gonzalez deal lo these many years ago) . But I know that I ought to be thinking more about it; so, discuss.