I hope this is the right forum for this question.
I am almost finished reading Al On America by Al Sharpton.
In it, he mentions it would be good for America to lift the embargo on Cuba.
What good would this do?
Would it have bad consequences?
They bulk of the benefit of lifting the US embargo would go to the Cuban government.
The benefit of lifting the embargo on Cuba would be to tell Fidel Castro that we are equal-opportunity supporters of dictators.
IMHO - one possible side effect of lifting the embargo could be a gradual undermining of Fidel’s power.
As it stands now we are unequal-opportunity supporters of dictators.
It would mean that the U.S. had finally been honest enough to believe its own position regarding China. The only reason we are “tough” on Cuba and “engaging” on China is that we expect to make more profits in China. Therefore, we pretend that being open with China will allow us to “export” demcratic ideals while being open with Cuba will allow Castro to conquer the free world.
Sharpton’s an ass, but on this point he is correct.
(Dropping the embargos against Cuba would also go a long way toward breaking the strangle hold that the Cuba emigres in Florida have on the political Right in the U.S.)
Please provide cites.
I finished his book, and I see nothing that shows he was an ass, including the Diallo, Crown Heights, Brawley, etc.
Sorry. If you have followed the Brawley situation through all its twists and turns and legal follow-ups and you do not find him to be an ass–to say nothing of a self-serving promoter of hate to further his own personal power–then nothing I provide, now, will change your opinion.
Nothing undermines Communism better than prosperity and exposure to Capitalism. Communism is most appealing to the very poor. The embargo hurts Cuba, but it helps Castro to hold power.
The embargo originally was done to avenge the confiscation of US private property in Cuba in the revolution. Cuba had been a colony of the US, and of Spain before that. In the cold-war mentality, it looked like the Communists would take over all of Latin America. Now, though, Communism is dead in most of the world, and there’s no good reason to continue the embargo. Forty-five years is a long time. Let it go.
Right, because they don’t have an equal stranglehold on the left.