Disrespectful Right-Wing Republicans

Shame America and Democracy
Updated: Sunday, November 22nd, 2015

       Stonegate Bank of Fort Lauderdale is an example of many companies based in South Florida that yearn to do business with the island of Cuba. A new poll released this week revealed that even conservative Republicans in the most conservative American states strongly support President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Yet, for decade-after-decade America's bellicose Cuban policy has been dictated by right-wing Americans, many aligned with the Mafia, and by right-wing Cuban-Americans, many with ties going back to the Batista dictatorship. And that remains the case today. An easily purchased U. S. Congress still permits four Cuban-Americans from Miami plus one from New Jersey and one from Texas to dictate America's Cuban policy not so unlike a dictatorship in a Banana Republic would do. This week Stonegate Bank, after a long effort, combined with MasterCard to slice into that dictation. This week for the first time debit cards became active in Cuban hotels, restaurants, stores, and other businesses, thanks to the efforts of Stonegate Bank. How did this happen, you ask. Well...maybe Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were too busy campaigning for the Presidency to block Stonegate Bank's latest bit of courage, freedom, democracy, decency and pure sanity regarding nearby Cuba.

Image courtesy of NBC-TV News.

        The image above flashed around the world this week when Cuban-American Republican presidential contender, U. S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, stared into a network camera and purposely showed massive disrespect not only to President Barack Obama but to the office of the Presidency that Mr. Cruz is seeking. His exact and well rehearsed quote, made just outside the Capital Hill Club in Washington, was directed straight at President Obama: "If you want to insult me, you can do it overseas, you can do it in Turkey. Come back and insult me to my face." Cruz was exalting over the fact that President Obama, in Turkey and later in the Philippines, had opposed the "shameful" statements Republican presidential contenders were making in regards to the U. S. accepting some Syrian refugees, once mentioning Cruz's name. Well knowing his "insult me to my face" dare would get him considerable television time, it also revealed Cruz as the right-wing bully he is. What would Cruz do if, indeed, he was face-to-face with the President? Punch him? Or was Cruz merely seeking more television exposure and just trying to further appeal to his right-wing base. Whichever, Americans should decide. Disagreeing with President Obama is one thing; but being utterly disrespectful to the President and the office he holds is being disrespectful to the United States of America.

        Senator Ted Cruz's father, Rafael, sometimes takes the spotlight away from his son on the presidential campaign trail. Rafael Cruz, a firebrand Texas pastor, was born 76 years ago in Matanzas, Cuba. His bio {check Wikipedia} claims he joined Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista at age 14 but left Cuba at age 18 in 1957 before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. His circuitous journey thereafter saw him become a longtime Canadian citizen, then a move to Texas, and in 2005 he finally became a U. S. citizen. Now a fiery Texas and campaign orator, one of the first items that pops up on a Google search of Rafael Cruz is a long Salon.com article entitled "Ted Cruz's Dad Is Even More Frightening Than Ted Cruz." A long anti-Obama rant by Rafael Cruz on YouTube seems truly scary, but it's up to the majority of Americans to judge him and his son. 

       The new Top Republican is 45-year-old Paul Ryan from Wisconsin. As Speaker of the House, he is just two steps from the Presidency, behind only the President and the Vice President. He disagrees with President Obama on almost every issue, including topics such as Cuba and Syrian refugees, and that's fine in America's two-party political system. At least Speaker Ryan seems more civil, discreet, and anecdotal than most radical, headline-seeking, single-minded Republicans. But his status as Top Republican is new and fragile, and his input is still to be determined.

         Often nowadays, during a weak cycle for the U. S. media, the best journalism in America comes from the skilled pens of great political cartoonists. Take, for example, the one above courtesy of Kevin Siers, the superb star for the Charlotte Observer. "The Doctors Strangelove" gem recounts the cowardly, undemocratic action of 47 U. S. Senators -- depicted by Siers as "the GOP 47" -- who signed off on that behind-the-back letter to Iran that aligned with the Iranian "hardliners" against President Barack Obama. It is, of course, too much to expect American voters to have the insight or concern of a genius like Kevin Siers, but anyone even moderately interested in preserving the essence and dignity of the U. S. democracy should comprehend repeated examples of right-wing Republicans in the U. S. Congress showing utter disrespect for democracy, America's two-term President, and the office of the Presidency. 

    {Photo courtesy: Associated Press/Ross D. Franklin}

      This photo shows President Barack Obama making a fiery speech recently at the Cleveland Convention Center. The topic was: Republican Intransigence. A lifelong conservative Republican, I agree with our President when he points out such things.

       On a regular basis, the three Cuban-American members of the U. S. Senate -- Ted Cruz, Robert Menendez, and Marco Rubio -- not only show disrespect to Mr. Obama, the two-term President of the United States, but they also regularly display unacceptable disrespect for the office of the U. S. Presidency. While their antics may appeal to their right-wing base, it is unsettling to some that Cruz and Rubio are obsessed with seeking the office they disrespect, at least until they take it over.

  The Republican-led U. S. Congress, especially when the recently resigned John Boehner was Speaker of the House, has pushed the United States government far to the right of where most Americans stand. Most Americans understandably are strong supporters of Israel, but they should wince when Congress puts America in second place, or actually in third place nestled right behind the powerful Cuban lobby. 

Julia E. Sweig is America's greatest expert on U.S.-Cuban relations.

   Americans who have not read and studied Julia E. Sweig's remarkable book -- "Cuba: What Everyone Needs To Know" -- do not, quite frankly, know the most important things about United States-Cuban relations. Moreover, Americans unfamiliar with Julia E. Sweig probably have no idea how a right-wing U. S. Congress threatens the principles of the United States democracy.

And, uh, So, let's take a peek:n of Cuba:

        "CUBA: What Everyone Needs To Know" is the most significant, unbiased documentation of how the U. S. Congress emerged into a body more influenced by a foreign country, Israel, and by a handful of Cuban-Americans than by the President of the United States. This basic fact skewers the traditional checks-and-balances fabric of the U. S. democracy, the incomparable form of government envisioned so sagely by America's Founding {Not Foreign} Fathers. Many great, brave, and even Jewish authors have written about the Jewish lobby, AIPAC, having far more control and influence in the U. S. Congress than American Presidents. The recent congressional speech by the Israeli Prime Minister in defiance of President Obama is merely an example. In her seminal book, Julia E. Sweig -- America's preeminent Cuban expert -- explains how the Reagan-Bush administration anointed Jorge Mas Canosa, Miami's most powerful anti-Castro zealot, as the leader of the Cubans-in-exile. Most significantly of all, as documented by Ms. Sweig, Mas Canosa was advised to study and then duplicate AIPAC, the Israeli powerhouse lobby. Mas Canosa followed that advice to a tee, creating the Cuban lobby CANF. From that day to this day, and all the decades in between, the argument can easily be made that two gigantic lobbies -- AIPAC and CANF -- have had and still have more control and more influence in the U. S. Congress than any American President and, in fact, more than the collective power of 315 million Americans.

And by the way:

          This quintessential image of Pope Francis flashed around the world this week -- Thursday, November 19th. He was speaking at the Casa Santa Marta in Rome and his words were carried internationally via Vatican Radio. Newly saddened by the hundreds of terrorist murders in Paris and Nigeria, Pope Francis said: "The whole world is at War. The path of peace means that God himself, that Jesus himself, weeps."

******************************