He was young, urbane and a mesmerizing speaker who looked more like the minority of his country than the majority. He swept to power following a campaign full of promises of change to the way government would tackle the challenges facing his nation. He was a heartthrob celeb and promised things would be better for all once the old guard in his nation were out of the way. Many in his nation and abroad did not believe that the charismatic leader was the leftist that his opposition portrayed him as. Surely he would govern with centrist enlightenment once in power. Forty-six years ago today, Fidel Castro, in a televised speech, proclaimed to his nation and the world that, "I am a Marxist-Leninist and shall be one until the end of my life... Marxism or scientific socialism has become the revolutionary movement of the working class." Even more chillingly he decreed that "there cannot be three or four movements." For the next half century (and counting) Cuba was subject to the ruthless leadership of one man and his communist cronies.
There's been a lot of wishful thinking amongst those to the right on the political spectrum lately regarding the "pragmatism" of an Obama administration. The hope is that "H" will suborn his socialist core and govern in a way that is, frankly, anathema to his beliefs. The hope is that regardless the strength of the left, the right will be allowed to reclaim and proclaim its movement.
Hope is not a strategy, nor an effective course of action. It is whistling in the dark.
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