Thread: Ted Cruz rips Obama’s Cuba trip: ‘Today is a sad day in American history’

Ted Cruz rips Obama’s Cuba trip: ‘Today is a sad day in American history’

Dylan Stableford
Senior editor
March 21, 2016

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz slammed President Obama’s historic trip to Cuba on Sunday, arguing that the United States is sending a dangerous message to “political prisoners languishing in dungeons across the island.”

“Nobody has your back,” Cruz wrote in an op-ed published by Politico. “The world has forgotten about you.

“They will not be on TV, rubbing elbows with the Obamas,” Cruz continued. “There will be no mojitos at the U.S. Embassy for them. Raúl Castro denies their very existence.”

The Republican presidential hopeful is the son of a Cuban immigrant “who was beaten and tortured” during former Cuban president-turned-dictator Fulgencio Batista’s regime before fleeing to the U.S.

More from Cruz’s Politico piece:

News reports say there are more than 100 long-term prisoners of conscience in Cuba. Nobody knows for sure, as the Castro regime does not grant international organizations access to its prisons. But we know they are there and that hundreds are held for shorter periods, and beaten in prison regularly.

Until Obama, siding with the oppressed had always been America’s aspiration. We have done so not just out of an abiding sense of justice, but also for hard-nosed reasons of national interest. In Cuba the Castros have been the implacable enemies of the United States for more than half a century. It is in our interests to make common cause with the brave souls who oppose them.


In December, President Obama told Yahoo News that he would only travel to Cuba “if, in fact, I with confidence can say that we’re seeing some progress in the liberty and freedom and possibilities of ordinary Cubans.

“If we’re going backwards,” Obama added, “then there’s not much reason for me to be there.”

“I have news, Mr. President,” Cruz wrote. “No progress has taken place. Cuba is going backwards.”

Related: Yahoo News’ live coverage of President Obama’s trip to Cuba

During a campaign stop in Arizona, Cruz called Obama’s touchdown in Cuba “a sad day in American history.”

“For decades, leftists and Hollywood liberals have made the pilgrimage to Cuba to pay homage to Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro,” Cruz said. “It’s very chic, it’s very chichi for leftists to celebrate vicious communist dictators.”

If elected president, Cruz vowed he would visit Cuba too, though under different circumstances.

“I cannot wait as president to visit Cuba,” he said. “But when I visit Cuba, it will be a free Cuba. It will be a Cuba without Raúl Castro, without Fidel Castro. And I can’t wait to celebrate with the people of Cuba 90 miles off America’s shore.”

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/ted-c...135251553.html

Ted Cruz is wrong on this, like most things he hawks about. I've supported diplomatic relations with Cuba for most of my adult life. There was no excuse, reason or cause after US-Russian Relations were improved to have any antagonism towards Cuba. Cuba is a neighbor, 90 miles from Florida. Yes, they are a Communist country, like China and many other countries with whom we have strong diplomatic and business relations. No, they are not a free country like we are, but their lack of freedom is no less than the freedoms lacking in many many countries with whom we have strong diplomatic and trade relations.

This is a good day and will likely prove to be the one great achievement of the Obama Administration, and in my opinion, rightfully so.

Most Americans agree, an overwhelming 93% have voted on pulse.msnbc in favor of lifting the trade embargo with Cuba, which is the highest % of support for any issue I've followed on pulse in the past several months.

So Ted Cruz is not the guy for foreign policy when he can't get even this simple "no-brainer" right. Cruz reminds me of Wiley Coyote.

Originally Posted by Judy

Ted Cruz is wrong on this, like most things he hawks about. I've supported diplomatic relations with Cuba for most of my adult life. There was no excuse, reason or cause after US-Russian Relations were improved to have any antagonism towards Cuba. Cuba is a neighbor, 90 miles from Florida. Yes, they are a Communist country, like China and many other countries with whom we have strong diplomatic and business relations. No, they are not a free country like we are, but their lack of freedom is no less than the freedoms lacking in many many countries with whom we have strong diplomatic and trade relations.

This is a good day and will likely prove to be the one great achievement of the Obama Administration, and in my opinion, rightfully so.

Most Americans agree, an overwhelming 93% have voted on pulse.msnbc in favor of lifting the trade embargo with Cuba, which is the highest % of support for any issue I've followed on pulse in the past several months.

So Ted Cruz is not the guy for foreign policy when he can't get even this simple "no-brainer" right. Cruz reminds me of Wiley Coyote.

I have to disagree. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of communism in those territories it once occupied we certainly needed to change our relations with the new Russian Federation. We should have especially shut down NATO to replace it with a new treaty with Europe based on new realities.

But Cuba has degenerated into something less than a communist state. If Cuba were to embrace reform and political freedom that were up to Chinese standards, (at least) BO's overtures to Cuba might be justified. But Cuba is more like North Korea, a family run prison. If Cuba had a hard industry like Korea, it would be a similar threat.

What Cruz neglected to remind us is that he isn't even really a Canadian, he is more Cuban himself by way of his father. And we might also observe exactly what his father's relationship with Cuba is like.

We'll have to agree to disagree on Cuba. Cuba is not the villain it has been portrayed to be. There is no excuse for a closed door policy with any country, let alone one 90 miles from our shores. With regards to North Korea, we would have already completed a non-nuclear proliferation treaty with North Korea, but for the grand stupidity of Condoleeza Rice and GW Bush who wanted to stop North Korean counterfeiting as part of the nuclear agreement.

And to any and everyone who wants to slam Cuba for its "political prisoners", whoever they are for whatever they have done, but some international organizations who claim to know how many there are say there are around 1,000 of them in jail, well, we don't know what they did, what law they broke, what they said, what they were up to, or anything about it, meanwhile we have millions of black Americans stuck in jails and prisons for years for non-violent drug charges. So tell me which is more of a human rights violation? Having some pot or crack in possession or trying to overthrow your government? You think if Americans were trying to overthrow our government with a coup or an assassination or whatever wouldn't be behind bars? You bet we would.

As long as we're conducting diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia where they stone women to death for walking on the street alone or refusing to cover their faces, behead political and religious dissidents, and whose citizens chose to attack the United States on 9/11, I have no problem with diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba.

Originally Posted by Judy

We'll have to agree to disagree on Cuba. Cuba is not the villain it has been portrayed to be. There is no excuse for a closed door policy with any country, let alone one 90 miles from our shores. With regards to North Korea, we would have already completed a non-nuclear proliferation treaty with North Korea, but for the grand stupidity of Condoleeza Rice and GW Bush who wanted to stop North Korean counterfeiting as part of the nuclear agreement.

I don't think you have really grasped the situation with North Korea. North Korea is a brutal reactionary socialist monarchy that constantly threatens its cousins in South Korea. Cuba is also a reactionary socialist monarchy that would love to be another North Korea, if only they were as prosperous. I don't think the close distance makes relations with Cuba any warmer.

Originally Posted by Judy

And to any and everyone who wants to slam Cuba for its "political prisoners", whoever they are for whatever they have done, but some international organizations who claim to know how many there are say there are around 1,000 of them in jail, well, we don't know what they did, what law they broke, what they said, what they were up to, or anything about it, meanwhile we have millions of black Americans stuck in jails and prisons for years for non-violent drug charges. So tell me which is more of a human rights violation? Having some pot or crack in possession or trying to overthrow your government? You think if Americans were trying to overthrow our government with a coup or an assassination or whatever wouldn't be behind bars? You bet we would.

I don't think you can compare the victims of the Drug War with political prisoners. At least with the Drug War, there is some real vice involved. Political prisoners are, by definition, not involved in conspiracies or subversion, but rather people who are simply critical of the government and are willing to say so in public.

Originally Posted by Judy

As long as we're conducting diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia where they stone women to death for walking on the street alone or refusing to cover their faces, behead political and religious dissidents, and whose citizens chose to attack the United States on 9/11, I have no problem with diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba.

Our relationships with Saudi Arabia are complicate by our dependence on their oil and political pressure to show tolerance towards Islam. There is no such political pressure anywhere to show any tolerance towards secular dictatorships.

I have totally grasped the North Korean situation for 40 years. Apparently too few others have which is why they now have nuclear bombs and the kid in charge.

Speaking out against totalitarian governments everywhere will land your ass in prison. There is nothing unique or peculiar about what Cuba may or may not do to political prisoners who have violated whatever anti-government rhetoric laws which these governments have because they consider this type of speech and actions a threat to their national security and stability than any other. Every country with that style of government does the same thing. It's how they hold onto power.

It's been my view for decades that our policy towards Cuba was biased, hypocritical, unwarranted, cruel, and unfair. Starving an island population through lack of trade with its closest neighbor is cruel and mean.

Today re-established diplomatic relations. It still hasn't removed the trade embargo. That will require an Act of Congress. But travel to and fro is now allowed and there are some areas of commerce though limited without a lift on the embargo. This is progress and progress long over-due.

That said, we should never release or return Guantanamo Naval Base back to Cuba. We should have never handed over the Panama Canal to Panama either.