Joe Biden 5
A Letter to US President Joe Biden
By: Esteban Morales, July 1, 2021. Reveived via email. Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann. If only you, Mr. President, would think carefully about Cuba. You are reviewing Cuba policy, so they say. But I think, you have already taken too long. It is true that your priorities, quite justifiably, have been other, but you should not extend the deadline to define the policy towards Cuba any longer. Because this is a conflict that has been going on for more than 60 years and we should solve it. Even if you continue to wait to define it, you could, at least, adopt some measures that would not contradict any policy, unless what they want is to punish the Cuban people on both sides of the Florida Straits. That would be a truly unscrupulous and criminal infamy. I believe that the deeper policy could wait, let’s say, to remove us from the infamous list of those who do not “collaborate with the fight against terrorism”. Which, it is understood, is a bit of a no-brainer, but the other measures either? Those issues, which were unjustified barbarities, of Trump’s policy, I think, could be fixed. While you analyze in a deeper way, what could be the policy. I see no contradictions in that you could apply that parallelism, within a waiting period, which is already long. Even if you continue to wait to define the policy, you could at least adopt some measures that would not be in contradiction with any policy, unless you want to punish the Cuban people on both sides of the Florida Straits. Which would be a truly unscrupulous and criminal infamy. What could it have to do with politics that you decided to restore remittances, facilitate visas and continue academic exchanges? If all these activities have done is to maintain people-to-people contact. And in particular, the academic exchange, which has done so much to keep the two peoples from coming to blows. I believe that the most profound policy could wait, let’s say, to remove us from the infamous list of those who do not collaborate with the fight against terrorism. Which, understandably, is a little more difficult. But those issues, which were unjustified barbarities, of Trump’s policy, could be fixed. While you analyze in a deeper way, what could be the policy. I don’t see contradictions in that you could apply that parallelism. What is it costing you, Mr. President, that people think you are worse than Trump. They would realize that they should not make the Cuban people pay for what they consider to be the government’s faults. Do not fall into that political mistake. Get along with the government and do not continue to punish the people, who are not the government. I mean, if that is true. Well, one of your mistakes has always been to confuse the people and the government, putting them both in the same bag. Or to say that the punitive measures are against the government and not against the people; when it is known that this is an infamous lie. A few days ago I told you that the problem is not political but humanitarian. And it seems that you have understood this. Now what you have to do is to apply it. It is the families who, on both sides, suffer from the application of measures that you could begin to free us from. There are more than 240 measures, Mr. President, that you have maintained for 5 months; I hope you realize that they are already yours. And you have not even loosened a single one of them. What do you want people to think of you Mr. President? Move over, Trump has already launched his candidacy. And the congressional races are close. You know that, because of your attitude towards Cuba so far, many on this side compare you to Trump. And on the other side as well. Besides, you should take into consideration that solidarity with Cuba has grown a lot this year. And his defeat, yours already, in the UN, with the Cuban Resolution against the Blockade, has been crushing. I don’t think you should allow that, because let’s say, many on this side and on the other side, think that you are worse than Trump. And the truth is, you should not allow yourself to be compared to such a guy. Trump is not a decent person. You know that he’s a mobster and a cheat. And I don’t know of an American president, neither do you, I’m sure, who has been so indecent. Not even Nixon with Watergate. You, Mr. Biden, have worked too hard and held too many important positions in American politics to end your days with such a group of companions. You would be throwing away everything that it has cost you to be a decent politician. On the other hand, do not pay attention to Marco Rubio, nor to his entourage,. They are all failures in their attempts at anti-Cuba policy. If there is anything they owe to the American governments, except with Obama, it is the money they have taken from the American treasury, and to have gone down with them in the failure of the anti-Cuba policy. These people are corrupt, Mr. President; the only thing they are interested in is money. Do not allow them to discredit you. You are not corrupt like them. Don’t hang out with them, Mr. Biden, it affects your image. Review the history of each one of them and you will see that what I am telling you is true. How many have believed in them and have sunk? Do what you want with your Cuba policy, but do it yourself, do not be guided by that bunch of “enlightened” criminals. If you are guided by those people, you will end up, as 11 American presidents have already done…? Aren’t more than 60 years enough for you to realize it? Cuba is not so important, Mr. President, what is really important are the mistakes that, with the policy towards my country, the U.S. governments have made and the failures that the United States has already had with its policy. Do not repeat them. You don’t need to. Think carefully about what you will do, you have no need to repeat historical mistakes. Cuba has never harmed the United States; it is we in Cuba who have had to suffer its policies. We have always been willing to sit at the negotiating table with you. The only condition is that you respect our sovereignty and independence, which has cost us so much blood and sacrifice to achieve. I do not believe that after having failed so much, it is difficult, or a bad way, to try to reach an understanding with Cuba. A neighboring country, so close, not only geographically, that has never practiced hatred against you, nor has it harmed your interests, beyond the duty to defend ours. A country that has much to offer to yours, as has been demonstrated several times. Educational, health and cultural experiences that we could share. I would recommend you to meet with some students and people who have passed through Cuba, to see what their life experiences have been. I am sure they will tell you many things that you do not know. Dare to visit Cuba, see us up close, get closer to our culture, our life and you will see how much we have in common. We have been close peoples, those who have tried to separate us. We Cubans are the most similar to you in this hemisphere. We were colonized by the Spaniards, but we were neo-colonized by you and thus, painfully, you also remained in our culture. You brought modernity to Cuba, not the Spaniards. That is why we love American music, we love your cigars, we love apple pie, turkey, popcorn, American cars, cowboy movies, we wear jeans, we go on picnics, that is how you entered our Cuban culture. American consumerist culture quickly entered Cuba. As well as the advances of technology in urban life, family life, clothing, food, junk and non-junk. In many ways North American culture has entered Cuba. However, when you confront Cubans, you lose, because you have to deal with a version of yourselves, only improved. Thus, it is possible to see you allying yourselves with the Cubans/Americans, who take money and support away from you in order to attack Cuba with a policy that has continually failed on the island. I want you to realize that, both in Cuba and in the United States, you have always failed with the Cubans; both on the side of the revolution and on the side of the counterrevolution. That is why I suggest you have your own policy, without allies from one side or the other. But a policy forged by yourselves, which will be, I am sure, the one that will lead you to have a coherent and convenient behavior in your relationship with Cuba. It already happened to the US with the Batista Dictatorship, therefore, abandon the current variant of re-imposing the dictatorship in Cuba, forging the most convenient policy to relate with a Triumphant Revolution. For if the mediation mechanisms they tried to seek to get rid of Batista did not work for them, much less will they work now to mediatize the Cuban Revolution already in power. Play with the Cubans here, they are not going to give you headaches, nor will they ask you for money to settle with them. If it is a question of ideology, abandon it, it will no longer give you any results. For we are no longer in 1934, when they allied themselves with Batista, nor in 1952, when they supported his coup d’état, nor in 1958, when they tried to replace him in order to defeat Fidel Castro. Now it is with revolutionary Cuba, with which they have to understand each other. And remember, Mr. President, that with the needs, the suffering, the pains, the food, the medicines and the money of the people, you do not play games. That, for a politician like you, should always be sacred. The people are always right. Wherever they live. Greetings
From: Esteban Morales <michel@cubarte.cult.cu>
Si el Sr. Presidente pensara detenidamente sobre Cuba. Autor: Esteban Morales. Ustedes están revisando la política hacia Cuba, según dicen. Pero creo, ya se han demorado mucho. Es verdad que sus prioridades, bastante justificadas, han sido otras, pero no debieran alargar más el plazo para definir la política hacia Cuba. Porqué se trata de un conflicto que ya lleva más de 60 años y debiéramos solucionalo Aun y cuando continuaran esperando por definirla, pudieran, al menos, adoptar algunas medidas, que no caerían en contradicción con cualquier política, a menos que lo que quisieran es castigar al pueblo cubano, de ambos lados del estrecho de la Florida. Lo cual sería, una verdadera, inescrupulosa y criminal infamia. Yo creo que la política más profunda pudiera esperar, digamos, quitarnos de la infamante lista de quienes no “colaboran con la lucha contra el terrorismo”. Que se entiende, es un poco memos fácil. ¿Pero las demás medidas tampoco? Esos asuntos, que fueron barbaridades injustificadas, de la política de Trump, creo, pudieran arreglarse. Mientras ustedes analizan de manera más profunda, cual pudiera ser la política. No veo contradicciones en que pudieran aplicar ese paralelismo, dentro de un tiempo de espera, que ya resulta largo. Aun y cuando continuaran esperando por definir la política, pudieran, al menos, adoptar algunas medidas, que no caerían en contradicción con cualquier política, a menos, de que quisieran castigar al pueblo cubano, de ambos lados del estrecho de la Florida. Lo cual sería una verdadera, inescrupulosa y criminal infamia. ¿Que puede tener que ver con la política, que ustedes decidiesen restaurar las remesas, facilitar los visados y continuar los intercambios académicos? Si todas esas actividades lo que han hecho es mantener el contacto pueblo a pueblo. Y en particular, el intercambio académico, que ha hecho tanto porque ambos pueblos no se vayan a las manos. Yo creo que la política más profunda pudiera esperar, digamos, quitarnos de la infamante lista de quienes no colaboran con la lucha contra el terrorismo. Que se entiende, es un poco más difícil. Pero esos asuntos, que fueron barbaridades injustificadas, de la política de Trump, pudieran arreglarse. Mientras ustedes analizan de manera más profunda, cual pudiera ser la política. No veo contradicciones en que pudieran aplicar ese paralelismo. Que les está costando, Sr. Presidente, que la gente crea que Ud. Es peor que Trump. Se percatarían de que no debieran hacer pagar al pueblo cubano, las culpas que considera son del gobierno. No caiga en ese error político. Entiéndanselas con el Gobierno y no siga castigando al pueblo, que no es el gobierno. Digo, si eso es cierto. Pues un error de ustedes ha sido también, siempre, confundir pueblo y gobierno, metiéndolos ambos en un mismo saco. O decir, que las medidas punitivas son contra el gobierno y no contra el pueblo; cuando se sabe, eso es una infamante mentira. Hace algunos días le dije que el problema no es político sino humanitario. Y parece que Ud. Lo ha comprendido. Ahora lo que tiene es que aplicarlo. Son las familias, las que, de ambos lados, sufren, por la aplicación de medidas, que Ud. Bien podría comenzar a liberarnos de ellas. Son más de 240 medidas Sr. Presidente, que Ud. ha mantenido por 5 meses; que espero se percate, de que son suyas ya. Y ni siquiera, ha aflojado una sola de ellas. ¿Que Ud. Desea que la gente piense de Ud. Sr. Presidente? Muévase, que ya Trump lanzó su candidatura. Y las congresionales están cerca. Sabe, Ud. Que, por su actitud hasta ahora mantenida con Cuba, muchos de este lado lo comparan con Trump. Y del lado de allá también. Además, debe tomar en consideración, que la solidaridad con Cuba creció mucho este ano. Y su derrota, la suya ya, en ONU, con la Resolución Cubana contra el Bloqueo, ha sido aplastante. No creo debiera permitir eso, porque digamos, muchos de este lado y del lado de allá, piensan que Ud. Es peor que Trump. Y la verdad es, que Ud. No debiera permitir que lo comparen Con semejante tipo. Trump no es una persona decente. Usted lo sabe, es un mafioso y un tramposo. Y yo no sé de un presidente norteamericano, Ud. Tampoco, estoy seguro, que haya sido tan indecente. Ni Nixon con Watergate. Usted, Sr. Biden, ha trabajado mucho y ha tenido posiciones importantes en la política norteamericana, como para terminar sus días, con semejante grupo de acompañante. Estaría echando por tierra todo lo que le ha costado ser un político decente. Por otro lado, no le haga caso a Marco Rubio, ni a su séquito, que todos son unos fracasados en sus intentos de política contra Cuba. Si algo les deben a los gobiernos norteamericanos a esos tipos, salvo con Obama, es el dinero que les han quitado al tesoro norteamericano, y haberse hundido con ellos en el fracaso de la política contra Cuba. Esa gente son unos corruptos, presidente; lo único que les interesa es el dinero. No permita que lo desprestigien. Que Ud. No es un corrupto como ellos. No se junte con ellos, Sr. Biden, que afecta su imagen. Repase la historia de cada uno y vera que es verdad lo que le estoy diciendo. ¿Cuantos han creído en ellos y se han hundido? Haga lo que Ud. Quiera con la política hacia Cuba, pero hágalo Ud. mismo, no se guie por esa piara de delincuentes “ilustrados”. Si Ud. ¿Se quía por esa gente, va a terminar, como ya lo hicieron 11 presidentes norteamericanos…? ¿No le son suficientes más de 60 años para percatarse de ello? Cuba no es tan importante, Sr. Presidente, lo verdaderamente importante, son los errores que, con la política hacia mi país, los gobiernos estadounidenses, han cometido y los fracasos que Estados Unidos ya ha tenido con su política. No los repita. No tiene necesidad de ello. Piense detenidamente lo que hará, que Ud. No tiene necesidad de repetir los herrores históricos. Cuba, nunca le ha hecho daño a los Estados Unidos, somos nosotros en Cuba, lo que hemos tenido que sufrir sus políticas. Estando siempre dispuestos a sentarnos a la mesa de negociaciones con ustedes. Poniendo como única condición que respeten nuestra soberanía e independencia, que tanta sangre y sacrificio nos ha costado conseguirlas. No creo, que después de haber fracasado tanto, sea difícil, o un mal camino, tratar de entenderse con Cuba. Un país vecino, tan cercano, no solo geográficamente, que nunca ha practicado el odio contra ustedes, ni ha dañado sus intereses, más allá del deber de defender los nuestros. Un país, que tiene mucho que ofrecer al suyo, como ha quedado varias veces demostrado. Experiencias educacionales, de salud, culturales, que pudiéramos compartir. Yo le recomendaría se reunieran con algunos estudiantes y personas que han pasado por Cuba, para que comprueben cuales han sido sus experiencias de vida. Estoy seguro le dirán muchas cosas que Ud. No sabe. Atrévase a visitar Cuba, véanos de cerca, acérquese a nuestra cultura, nuestra vida y vera cuanto tenemos en común. Hemos sido pueblos cercanos, a los que han tratado de separar. Los cubanos, somos en este hemisferio, los que más nos parecemos a ustedes. Es que a nosotros nos colonizaron los españoles, pero nos neocolonizaron ustedes y así, dolorosamente, quedaron también en nuestra cultura. Ustedes trajeron la modernidad a Cuba, no los españoles. Por eso, amamos la música norteamericana, nos encantan sus cigarros, nos encanta el pie de manzana, el pavo, las pok corn, los carros americanos, las películas de vaqueros, usamos Jeans, hacemos picnic, así entraron ustedes en nuestra cultura, cubana. La cultura consumista norteamericana entro rápidamente en Cuba. Como también entraron los adelantos de la técnica en a vida urbana, familiar, el vestir, las comidas, chatarra y no chatarra. De múltiples modos entro la cultura norteamericana en Cuba. Sin embargo, cuando ustedes se enfrentan a los cubanos, pierden, porque tienen que vérselas con una versión de ustedes mismos, solo que mejorada. Así es posibles verlos, como aliándose a los cubanos/americanos, estos últimos les quitan dinero y apoyo para agredir a Cuba, con una política, que, en la Isla, continuamente ha fracasado. Quiero que se percaten, de que, tanto en Cuba como en los Estados Unidos, ustedes siempre han fracasado con los cubanos; lo mismo del lado de la revolución, que de la contrarrevolución. Por lo que les sugiero tener una política propia, sin aliados de un lado ni del otro. Sino una política forjada por ustedes mismos, que será, estoy seguro, la que les llevará a tener un comportamiento coherente y conveniente de relación con Cuba. Ya les paso con la Dictadura de Batista, entonces, vuelvan a abandonar la variante actual de reimposición de la dictadura en Cuba, forjando la política más conveniente, para relacionarse con una Revolución Triunfante. Pues si los mecanismos de mediación, que trataron de buscar, para apartarse de Batista, no les dieron resultado; mucho menos, les darán resultado ahora, para mediatizar a la Revolución cubana ya en el poder. Jueguen con los cubanos de acá, que no les van a dar dolores de cabeza, ni les pedirán dinero para arreglarse con ellos. Si se trata de una cuestión ideológica, abandónenla, que ya no les va a dar resultado. Pues ya no estamos ni en 1934, cuando se aliaron a Batista, ni en 1952, cuando apoyaron su Golpe de Estado, Ni en 1958, cuando trataron de recambiarlo, para vencer a Fidel castro. Ahora es con Cuba revolucionaria, con la que se tienen que entender. Y recuerde Sr. Presidente, que, con las necesidades, los sufrimientos, los dolores, la comida, las medicinas y el dinero del pueblo, no se juega. Eso, para un político como Ud., Siempre debiera ser sagrado. El pueblo siempre, tiene la razón. De cualquier lado en que viva. Saludos
A Letter to US President Joe Biden
Una carta al Presidente de los Estados Unidos, Joe Biden
To: Walter Lippmann <walterlx@earthlink.net>
Subject: Traducir
Date:Jul 1, 2021 5:22 PM
What Trump Leaves and What Awaits Biden
What Trump leaves and what awaits Biden
The times are not good, and any political, social or economic agenda of a beginning President must be subject to the dictates of confronting the COVID-19 pandemic plus the vicissitudes of a very complicated Trumpian legacy
Posted: Saturday 02 January 2021 | 06:10:07 pm.
By Juana Carrasco Martin
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The victory to Joe Biden despite not being charismatic, and then made him categorically assert in an opinion article in The New York Times at the beginning of last August that “The keys predict that Trump will lose the White House Author: Victor Manuel Published: 02/01/2021 | 05:47 pm
Allan Lichtman, professor of history at American University, was also not wrong in predicting the winner of the 2020 presidential election. His record of accurate predictions, which dates back to 1984, remained intact.
The clues worked, which he explained in an interview with The Morning Show on Wisconsin Public Radio, why they were giving Joe Biden the victory even though he was not charismatic, and which then made him state categorically in an opinion piece in The New York Times in early August that “The clues predict that Trump will lose the White House:
The terrible numbers of the coronavirus pandemic, the national movement of protest against police brutality and systematic racism, the social unrest and economic collapse that erased the economic gains Donald Trump was presenting until the
Covid-19 appeared on the scene.
To tell the truth, Trumpism and its mishandling of the unexpected situation of this fateful 2020 and its aftermath, defeated the tycoon who administered the United States for four years as if it were an enormous capitalist monopoly, and not the imperial representative of big business that must follow the rules of the game because it is a showcase of democracy.
Without a doubt, the pandemic is rising as the giant to be faced by the elected president, although he already has the weaponry of the vaccine. A population of more than 300 million inhabitants is not immunized -what remains to be seen effectively- in a flash, therefore the numbers of those infected and killed and their consequent involvement in the country’s economy will continue to grow.
Without a doubt, the first months of Joe Biden’s administration will be torturous, and he does not have a Congress in which the Democrats, while retaining a majority in the House, will have to fight tooth and nail in the Senate.
Now, the legacy that Donald Trump leaves behind is much more notorious and damaging, because he led the United States into a state of extreme polarization and manipulated a good part of the American people in such a way that his faithful followers and the 74 million Americans who voted for him have accepted impunity and the existence of the swamp of corruption at the highest levels of the nation and of the power elites, even though one of his campaign promises was to end the “Democratic” swamp.
The pardons of these final days of his presidency speak for the clarity of that quagmire, when a good part of the pardons and annulments of sentences are for people very close to their political or family environment, faithful to their actions, millionaires who have committed tax fraud and other economic crimes.
An “achievement” of Trump, completed this one in the year 2020 will probably give a substantial turn to the legality towards the right. He appointed three Supreme Court justices – a lifetime appointment – and 25 percent of the federal judiciary. In doing so, he has reversed or broken the balance of federal appellate courts and, in the case of the highest court, could result in an alteration of the government’s regulatory power, the right to abortion, and the immigration law, to name three that are under debate and in the face of which the positions of the outgoing president, who will be sworn in on January 20 as the nation’s 46th president, are diametrically opposed.
According to judicial experts, and Democrats in particular, this is a takeover by the more conservative wing of the Republicans.
How will Biden deal with the very serious problem of institutionalized racism and its most public and violent expression, police brutality? Not a few analysts believe that the extreme white right promoted by Trump will persist in asserting its “right” to supremacy.
While Trump could not build the physical wall with Mexico, nor make his southern neighbors pay for it, since the cost of the remodeled areas and the little that was new took it out of the pockets of U.S. taxpayers, the restrictions he imposed on immigration have more than made up for that fence and it will have to be seen how the coming administration undoes them or how the judiciary keeps them in check, but he owes it to the Latino population and to the dream of millions of undocumented people that Trumpism turned into a nightmare.
In any case, Biden, whose motto was to recover “the soul of the nation,” faces an enormous challenge because that nation is divided and not precisely by a line of the color of the parties, but one that puts liberal democracy in check, with the promotion of distrust towards government institutions, the press, science and the electoral process itself.
Biden, on the other hand, was forced to wink at American progressivism and within the Democratic Party and must also comply with them, or at least try to do so, and there are not a few matters to approve of, nor are they easy.
Among them are education – only with the insurmountable debt of the university students will he have a good headache -; public health, which the Covid-19 has called into question, should introduce universal public insurance; organized labor, when unemployment reaches millions of Americans, hit by the closing of businesses of all sizes and sectors of the economy, and where the demand for the minimum wage will return with force.
Taxes cannot be absent from that list – when the reductions executed by Trump served to make the richest people benefit highly from 60 percent – and now it could not fail to benefit those with the lowest incomes, workers, ethnic minorities, women, immigrants.
A 180-degree turnaround is now mandatory on key foreign policy issues and on relations with allies, friends, and even adversaries. A field in which Trump has sown tensions and economic wars.
In some cases it will be “easy” for him, such as returning to the Treaty of Paris, the World Health Organization, restoring civilized exchanges with his allies in the European Union and NATO, among others.
Not so with respect to Iran, China, Russia, even Latin America, where renewed airs of sovereignty are returning in some countries and with them of integration.
How much it will maintain from the policies of sanctions, from the commercial wars, established with high tariffs that not only confronted the US with the Asian Giant and other adversaries, but also political and strategic allies for that vision of fierce business competition that prevailed for four years in the White House.
Will Biden be able to respect the right of the Palestinian people by reversing Washington’s embrace of Netanyahu’s apartheid?
There’s plenty of room to cut through, and we’ll have to wait for the new president’s first steps. One thing is certain: 2021 will not provide an answer to all the uncertainties, since the Covid-19 will continue to implement rules.
However, the clouds of four years of trumpism will not be easy to clear. Economist and columnist Robert Reich has said that the most vile legacy that Trump will leave is the acceptance of its behavior, and practically half of the American population seems to be enrolled in that list.
Dr. Salvador Capote on Biden vs. Trump
Biden vs. Trump
By Dr. Salvador Capote
October 14, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Trump and Biden pursue the same goal: to liquidate the Cuban Revolution. Trump embodies the hard line that is expressed in economic, commercial and financial suffocation, without ruling out the military option. Biden is on “Track 2”, the track of cultural and media penetration, of corrupting USAID and NED money, of diversionism, consumerism, and siren calls. Cuba can face both challenges, since it is very possibly the most politically aware people in the world.
It is the people of Martí and Fidel, whose courage and capacity to resist have been proven a thousand times over. But to face the line of the hawks in Washington would cost a lot of blood, in fact it has already cost a lot in the suffering of the Cuban people because of the blockade.
Facing the Obama line, represented by Biden for now, is in the long run the most subtle and dangerous, but we Cubans are aware of the danger and we know how to face it.
With the Biden administration, we could breathe and, if they take their knee off our neck, in a very short time we will demonstrate that to achieve the well-being and happiness of human beings there is no other option than socialism.
Biden and Cuba
Biden and Cuba
By Jorge Gómez Barata
September 9, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
For stating that: “If I won the elections, I would take up Barack Obama’s policy towards Cuba…”, Joe Biden, candidate for the presidency of the United States, does not need any more to settle the doubts regarding the government and the Cuban people.
Giving continuity to Obama’s Cuban policy expresses the will for détente that would configure a platform to bring positions closer, define agendas and propitiate a climate from which it is possible to advance, not only towards what Cuba wanted, but also towards what Barack Obama preferred. He considered the policy followed by the previous administrations obsolete, including the blockade that, according to his creed, instead of isolating Cuba, isolated the United States”.
Obama was neither a friend nor an ally of Cuba, but rather a president of the United States who, saving the asymmetries and the historical disagreement initiated by the Platt Amendment, as well as the insurmountable ideological differences derived both from the anti-communism in force in US policy and the aggressiveness in the face of the Revolution, worked to replace the hostility between the United States and Cuba with neighborliness.
Nobody discovers anything new when they observe that, as the political head of the empire, Obama would like a change in the orientation of Cuban policy, for which he set up premises, different from the aggressive policies of his predecessors. Obama chose options that were closer to the battle of ideas preferred by Cuba. Obviously, there are also Cubans who would applaud a socialist United States, but that does not mean that they would make such a commitment a political objective.
Whatever may be said, Barack Obama was the only US president who, in the 118 years of Cuba’s republican history, spoke with the national authorities on bilateral issues on an equal footing. He did this without prior conditions, without demands and without meanness, which had been a hope of the Cubans and a brilliant conquest of the Revolution. Besides, he is the only one who visited the Island and fraternally talked to the people and the authorities.
Raúl Castro, who added political sagacity and diplomatic skill to his firmness in the defense of national sovereignty and socialist principles, saw the moment when an opportunity opened up and, with integrity and flexibility, took advantage of it. He took steps towards meeting the political coherence of Barack Obama, reaching a common ground on which it was possible to understand each other and move forward until diplomatic relations were re-established.
The flexibility and political stature allowed both to understand that: differences do not prevent civilized coexistence. From Biden, I expect nothing else… I hope he wins. See you there.
Does Biden Have What It Takes?
Does Joe Biden Have What it Takes to be the Democratic Presidential Candidate?
By Fernando M. García Bielsa
(Specialist in North American issues. He has published in Cubadebate and other Cuban and foreign websites.)
April 26, 2019
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo taken from Diario público
Former Vice President Joseph Biden has just officially announced that he is running for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the November 2020 presidential election in the United States.
Covered in a cloak of false moderate or center positions, Biden is willing to come to the rescue of the corporate political establishment at a time when, between the electorate and the base of that party, demands and positions of support for a popular agenda have Abecome predominant.
Joe Biden is of course the best-known figure at the national level – among more than fifteen other politicians who are in the running for the Democratic nomination – perhaps with the exception of social democrat Bernie Sanders, who was much admired after his successful grassroots campaign in 2016.
A few days ago, the NY Times reported that Democrats who are part of the “Stop Sanders” effort are distressed by the momentum of the effort. A headline in the Washington Post said, “Center Democrats fear that far-left positions will lead to defeat in 2020. So they are pushing for alternatives.
In addition to having a name that part of the public identifies, Biden adds other advantages such as the favor of the country’s political and financial elite. With it comes access to the coffers needed to wage a successful and costly electoral campaign, as well as the favor of the national machinery of the Democratic Party. Also, it is supposed, he would also be assured of favorable coverage by the big media and television networks.
However, this politician also has his disadvantages before a rather skeptical electorate with clear tendencies to reject the same elite of Washington and Wall Street and, in general, those who conduct politics in the U.S. capital, a trend that has become more marked in recent years.
Joe Biden is 76 years old; he has been a member of Congress for no less than 36 years and vice president of the country for another eight during the Obama Administration. He is undoubtedly the oldest and most skillful of those serving the country’s among those who have announced their presidential aspirations.
Although with an image of center positions, his alignment with corporate and financial interests is very broad. It has been part of the corresponding game with policies in favor of big business, banking, insurance companies and the unanimously-favored increase in military spending, financial deregulation, and so on.
Like almost all Democratic politicians and presidential hopefuls from the Clinton and Obama currents, which are the ones that have hegemony in the party, Biden has a good arrival and relations with established elites in the African-American sectors and the union world.This is not the same as saying that he has real acceptance or descent from the workers or the so-called black or Latino communities.
One should not underestimate the strong and already established attitude of rejection, mentioned above, which has shown a large part of the U.S. electorate has shown toward towards politicians and elites in general.
These are factors that conspire against Biden’s potential, even though he has the advantage of being close to the establishment, the holders of the money and the favor of the big media.
Another issue to consider is the apathy of voters, also a longstanding trend that particularly affects Democrats when counting votes. Part of the factors that led to the defeat of Hillary Clinton in 20l6 was that by forcing her nomination, favoring her with all kinds of manipulations, the structures and leadership of the Party, they frustrated the possibility of motivating and energizing its base, as independent Senator Bernie Sanders was doing.
It is considered that for this electoral cycle and in order to defeat the Republican candidate, who most likely is the current president Donald Trump, it will be necessary to mobilize and give new energy to the Democratic electorate and rescue part of the popular sectors that it took from them.
Although this is definitely a party of the system, it will have to moderate its neoliberal propensity to reconnect to some extent with its base, with the so-called middle classes, a good part of them workers, and with many people disappointed with politics, and with the neglect and deterioration of their living conditions.
That was part of what gave Trump in 2016 the opportunity to manipulate anger and deep dissatisfaction among Americans with the country’s dysfunctional political system. Particularly the games symbolized on Wall Street and in the federal capital, and by the disconnection of the political spheres from the common people.
Although with a less unpleasant figure than Hillary Clinton, the Democrats, with Joe Biden (who resembles her in many substantive respects), could run the risk of repeating her discouraging and failed campaign in the last election cycle.
Biden has a history of openly defending capitalism and an underhand evasion of class inequalities. A long record and sequel to his positions that could make him vulnerable to his opponents during the coming months of the campaign, and in the home stretch if he were nominated, a record that includes expressions of racist type, of marked support for war, of favoring the deregulation of the banks, etc.
Or the fact that he has shown himself to be harsh in the face of crime, even to the point of insensitivity, as when he said in a speech before the full Senate in 1993:
“It doesn’t matter whether or not they are people who have been in need or marginalized in their youth. It does not matter whether or not they had a past that allowed them to be part of the social fabric. It doesn’t matter whether or not they were victims of society. The end result is that they are about to beat my mother…, shoot my sister…”, etc.
He is pointed out as a firm acolyte of the Military Industrial Complex. From his powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2003, Biden provided political cover for the massive military attack on Iraq authorized by Republican President George Bush. Some have said he did more than any other Democratic senator to get the green light for the invasion.
The forgetful citizenry may only have a nebulous image of this personality whose name is familiar to them, but much is the burden and complexity of his political record. For Biden to get the Democratic presidential nomination next year, it will depend largely on how many voters in the primaries would or would not have known about the background of this consummate politician; how much of his actual record will come to the fore in the coming months.
Although it’s too early to say, and even considering that money and the big media will pull the embers into their frying pan, I estimate that, in the long run, the Democratic Party structures, to some extent pushed by the rank and file, will favor a “new face” from among the dozen or more presidential hopefuls who have already thrown their had in the the ring for the Democratic nomination at the national convention to be held in July next year in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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