We’ve done debates on the future of Cuba after Castro’s death. Cubans in Florida have waited years for Castro’s death and they are absolutely fanatical about it. Remember the chaos over Elian Gonzalez a few years ago?
Is there any way to avoid riots in Miami? Do George W Bush, Jeb Bush, or Charlie Crist have any plans to deal with the anger of Cuban exiles in Miami who won’t see a paradise emerge immediately upon Castro’s death. They’re not going to get their property back. Some sort of corrupt government will probably take over Cuba.
I think it’s quite a statement about Castro that, even though it’s a certainty that all human beings will die, Castro is only seen as “likely” to die.
I’m not seeing riots in Miami or anywhere else. We’ve gotten a taste of post-Castro Cuba in that last few months, and it doesn’t seem to have lead to any radical changes so far.
Whatever type of government takes over, the first sentence is true.
Raul may be able to hold onto Communism simply due to his name, but he’ll leave the scene pretty soon too. Then I see Cuba either following the path taken by Vietnam or China, or falling into a revolution from within.
In neither case will the Bautistaistas be welcome to just come back and take over.
He seriously reminds me of Franco.
The joke about Franco was that they were going to give him a tortoise as a pet for his birthday, but then decided against it because Franco hated to see pets die.
You could recycle that one to be about Castro and not miss a beat.
Sure, he is. Just ask the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands he’s had murdered in order to secure and maintain his reign. Google is full of elucidation in this regard: just click here and scroll around a little.
Wtf? Have you totally lost it? Where in my post is there even the slightest hint of anything having to do with Castro’s Christianity . . . or any Christianity, for that matter?
However, even assuming you have a point, could you perhaps list whatever genocidal Christian dictators have been running around over, oh, say, the last sixty years or so and compare their record with that of the world’s communist dictators?
Or are you saying Castro’s murderous record is okay because some Christian dictator somewhere had or has a murderous record too? If so, that’s one hell of a rationalization!
I’ve always heard that lefties never met a dictator they didn’t like, but I must admit I never took into account Christian dictators. Now, thanks to you we can certainly put the lie to that notion, eh?
Well, there have been quite a few of them in Latin America, of course. I don’t think any of them could compete with the major communist tyrants like Stalin and Mao, but some of them definitely have Castro beat in the torture-and-slaughter department. Consider, for example, the authoritarian fundamentalist ordained minister and ex-dictator of Guatemala, Efrain Rios-Montt. And, of course, Chile’s Pinochet is a conservative Catholic.
Who’s arguing that Castro’s murderous record is okay? I think BG was just pointing out that religious ideology isn’t necessarily a reliable predictor of genocidal tendencies.
You’ve heard wrong. Most of us lefties don’t care for dictators of any stripe.
I see your point, but what of it? How does this make Castro anymore of a good Commie? That was my point.
With this I would agree, but so what? I never said it did.
I hope that’s so. I will grant that perhaps this is just an erroneous impression created by Hollywood lefties who are notorious for embracing communist dictators like Ho Chi Min (are you listening, Jane?) and Fidel Castro, whom none other than Steven Spielberg, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Oliver Stone, Jack Nicholson and Kevin Costner have all embraced and urged support of.
I didn’t say it did. You’re the one who seemed to be arguing that “we can tell Castro is a Commie because he killed a lot of people”. AFAICT, BG was just noting that plenty of non-Commie dictators also killed a lot of people, including some Christian dictators.
You get your impressions of “lefties” exclusively from rumors about Hollywood celebrities? Well, that explains a lot!
My goodness, you’re a testy little leftie tonight!
BG said: “He is a good Commie, isn’t he?”
I said, “Sure, just ask the tens or hundreds of thousands he has murdered.”
I said nothing about Christianity, nor about being able to tell he was a good commie because he killed a lot of people. I was being sarcastic!
You know, call me wacky, but I just don’t believe that a dictator who murders his own countrymen by the tens or hundreds of thousands in order to keep himself in power is a good guy, commie or not. Is it your position that Castro is a good commie despite the fact that he used genocide to enforce that ideology?
No, frankly, I get most of my impressions of “lefties” from this place, and believe me, Hollywood pales in comparison.
What I meant was that perhaps the person from whom I heard or read that lefties never met a dictator they didn’t like came to be of that impression due to the seemingly extraordinary degree to which highly visible lefties such as those from Hollywood embrace and support murderous communist dictators.
Saying somebody is a good X does not mean they are a good person. Ted Bundy was a good serial killer and Joseph Goebbles was a good Nazi. That doesn’t mean they are good people or that I approve of their actions.
But would you call a communist, who uses genocide to enforce that ideology, a good communist? To me, a good communist would be one who works to make the communist ideology work successfully and effectively for the good of his countrymen. I have a hard time believing that murdering them wholesale meets this criteria.
And this proves his Christianity how? I mean, just because Christian dictators act like that too . . .