Aid worker Alan Gross arrives in Maryland after being released from Cuban imprisonment as part of a deal loosening trade and diplomatic between Cuba and the United States.
With news that the president has
brokered detente with Cuba, expect the crazy right-wing Cuban-American community to lose its head. Marco Rubio has predictably
lost his, but Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez's hissy fit this morning has proven that idiocy can certainly be a bipartisan affair.
But here's the thing—the Cuban-American community is not monolithically in favor of keeping the failed embargo strategy alive. Quite the opposite, in fact. The only people left supporting failure are the crusty old fucks who can't get past having lost the war half a century ago.
Every year, Florida International Univerisity polls the Cuban-American community in South Florida. And the results are quite clear:
A slight majority of the Cuban-American community in Miami-Dade County opposes continuing the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Countywide, 52% of the respondents oppose continuing the embargo. This percentage rises among Cuban Americans ages 18-29, 62% of whom oppose continuing the embargo. Similarly, 58% of those arriving since 1995 oppose continuing the embargo.
Yup, there are those unable to let go of the past, clinging to decades of failed and ineffective policy, and there are those looking to the future.
A large majority favors diplomatic relations with Cuba (68%), with younger respondents strongly backing the policy shift (90%). Support for re-establishing diplomatic ties maintains a solid majority among all age groups up to age 70, after which it drops to a third of the population supporting the policy.
Like I said, crusty old fucks.
Ironically, those are the same people who religiously attend Catholic mass every Sunday. Yet who brokered this rapprochement? The Vatican.
So we've established that younger Cubans will be thrilled by the news (I have one living in my house. I'm married to her!) But you know who else will be happy? Republicans who have pushed for greater trade when serving as governors, like North Dakota's John Hoeven, Nebraska's Dave Heineman, Georgia's Sonny Perdue, Arkansas' Mike Huckabee (who later flipped when running for president), and Virginia's Bob McDonnell. How about Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, at hand to welcome released aid worker Alan Gross when he arrived back home?
In fact, as the Rubio and Huckabee examples show, the only Republicans still vested in the failed embargo are those who either serve in Florida and are beholden to the crusty bitter old fucks in South Florida, or those with national aspirations. Oh, and the neocons, because life isn't worth living for that crowd without a perceived Hitler to rail against.
But like every other one of the GOP's demographic woes, fact is, support for the embargo is (literally) dying off as I type this. The country is finally moving on, despite the wailing and teeth gnashing of the Rubios and Menendezes of the world, and the new generation of Cuban Americans is leading the way.
p.s.
Am I the only one who finds it odd that all the people wringing their hands over human rights violations in Cuba are big fans of Gitmo?
— @digby56
