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Thursday, April 09, 2009
Normalized trade with Cuba brought to you by the useful idiots for global capitalism
What started as wild and irresponsible speculation on my part, perhaps “wishful thinking” would be more kind, now has a firmer basis in reality: the Obama administration might very well normalize trade with Cuba.
Pressure to end the 50-year-old embargo is mounting daily from business leaders and business associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Arizona Republican Congressman Jeff Flake has sponsored the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, and Republican Senator Richard Lugar called for a “major reassessment of Washington's nearly half-century effort to isolate Cuba.”
And today, Michael Moynihan with Reason magazine is reporting that the Congressional Black Caucus plans to visit Cuba with the aim of “ending America's failed embargo policy and lifting all travel restrictions to the communist dictatorship.” The good people at Reason rightly lament, however, that “those pushing the policy change, like Rep Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), are long-standing apologists for the Castro regime.”
But you don’t have to be a communist sympathizer to desire trade with Cuba, of course. In fact, the opposite is true, as I’ve argued before here:
Trade is the Trojan Horse of liberty. Once it passes through the protectionist gates of fortress economies, it quietly sneaks about destroying statism and poverty.
Reps. Lee and Rush are “useful idiots” for global capitalism. I wish them well.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on April 9, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Castro and his crew are a pack of murdering thugs. They have oppressed the Cuban people under a one party communist system.
I'm amazed at how many businessmen are so friendly to Communists when they offer them prime economic opportunities.
Want to really help the Cuban people? Send guns to the Cuban people so that they can overthrow the Castros. Real freedom in Cuba will never be achieved until Castro and his crew are hanging from a rope "Mussolini style".
Is it any surprise that the members of the Black Congressional Caucus are so friendly to Castro? They are both anti-American socialists.
Posted by: David | 2009-04-09 2:37:13 PM
Tell that to the Chinese political prisoners of the Chinese government - yeah, trade worked so well there to turn China into a free nation (sarc).
Frankly, I wonder who would be stupid enough to operate in Cuba - do we so soon forget when they stole American corporate assets in the 1950s? If you are that stupid to invest in Cuba well, I call it survival of the fittest.
Posted by: Faramir | 2009-04-09 2:53:01 PM
About time!
Posted by: epsilon | 2009-04-09 2:57:33 PM
I find it impossible to get all hot and bothered about the idea of trade with Cuba, especially considering the special trade status given to China by the Americans. True, there is no defence for the Cuban communists' treatment of its citizens, but then it does not hold a light to the track record of the Chinese communists.
Posted by: Alain | 2009-04-09 8:19:09 PM
I find it odd that we carry the mantle of anti-communism at all considering how well entrenched it is in our own "system of democracy".
All ten planks of the communist manifesto are alive and well and we live with them daily.
So why not trade with Cuba? We can teach them how to be communist and still have "shiny stuff", like us.
Posted by: JC | 2009-04-09 8:52:39 PM
Matthew, you know that I welcome these developments as much as you, but I do have a point of contention.
Lifting all travel restrictions and allowing remittance payments does not "normalized trade" make. The Obama administration may move in that direction, but the embargo will not go.
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2009-04-09 9:43:41 PM
Maybe, Kalim, but it's a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-04-10 12:28:04 AM
Tell that to the Chinese political prisoners of the Chinese government - yeah, trade worked so well there to turn China into a free nation (sarc).
Frankly, I wonder who would be stupid enough to operate in Cuba - do we so soon forget when they stole American corporate assets in the 1950s? If you are that stupid to invest in Cuba well, I call it survival of the fittest.
Posted by: Faramir | 2009-04-09 2:53:01 PM
Faramir - in response to your first paragraph, I agree (and I think any sensible person would) that the Chinese people are certainly not free, and many (most) are far from prosperous. That said, we don't see atrocities on the that China saw when it was isolationist and more overtly communist than it is now.
The Chinese Communists realize that they have to make concessions of liberty if they want to retain power as the Chinese people realize how much more prosperous capitalism makes people. We can hope that this trend continues, and open trade will allow it to do so (or not.) Isolating China and Cuba to punish their governments, on the other hand, would have a far graver effect on their people, who you would be attempting to help. Politicians always seem to get by, no matter how impoverished their people may be as a result of isolation. Even Kim Jong-Il seems to enjoy creature comforts, though of course North Korea's isolation is self-imposed.
Towards your second paragraph, I agree that it would be folly to pour investment into Cuba given its track record, and I think most companies realize that. With the country shut down to trade with what could be its biggest investor, there has been no incentive for Cuba to make itself a better place for investment. Let's give them that incentive, and we will likely see a spreading of some limited property rights in the way that we have in China.
Posted by: Janet | 2009-04-10 7:54:34 AM
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