Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is not happy.
The United States is formally re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, President Obama announced Wednesday morning. "There have been very real, profound differences between our governments," Obama said, "and sometimes we allow ourselves to be trapped by a certain way of doing things."
For the United States, that meant clinging to a policy that was not working. Instead of supporting democracy and opportunity for the Cuban people, our efforts to isolate Cuba despite good intentions increasingly had the opposite effect—cementing the status quo and isolating the United States from our neighbors in this hemisphere. The progress that we mark today is yet another demonstration that we don’t have to be imprisoned by the past. When something isn’t working, we can—and will—change.
Predictably, Republicans are coming out against change and for the old, failed way of doing things. According to former Texas Gov.
Rick Perry, the move is "the most recent example of this president’s foreign policy that ignores reality in exchange for surface level political 'wins.'"
Jeb! Bush similarly suggested that Obama is most concerned with whether his "legacy is burnished with dubious diplomatic achievements and photo-ops" and not the substance of the agreement. New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie, meanwhile, called the decision "dead wrong."
Sen. Marco Rubio said he wouldn't support diplomatic relations with Cuba unless his human rights concerns were addressed, and to that end:
“I intend to oppose the confirmation of an ambassador to Cuba until these issues are addressed,” the Cuban-American lawmaker said in a statement Wednesday. “It is time for our unilateral concessions to this odious regime to end.”
And Sen.
Ted Cruz elected to link the decision to Israel, tweeting that "It's unacceptable and a slap in the face of a close ally that the United States will have an embassy in Havana before one in Jerusalem." The United States does of course have an embassy in Israel, it's just in Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem; there is also a consulate in Jerusalem. Canada, the country where Cruz was born, also has its Israeli embassy in Tel Aviv—and has had a Cuban embassy all along.
Notably absent from the Republican statements: Any serious argument that anything in Cuba would change if the United States kept doing the exact same thing it's been doing for more than 50 years. No, these are arguments for digging in and following a failed policy no matter what. And they're not convincing very many people: polls show a solid majority of Americans in favor of re-establishing relations with Cuba.