Michael Goodwin: Sanders, AOC and fellow Dems demonize US but Cubans know the truth

For socialists and their fellow travelers everywhere, it’s turning out to be a bummer of a summer. It’s almost bad enough to make you feel sorry for Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

Almost.

Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and their anti-American ilk are stuck defending economic authoritarianism abroad while its victims are pleading for the United States to save them. 

To the millions of downtrodden in Cuba, Haiti and most of Latin America, the U.S. remains the shining city on the hill, even as AOC and her Squad demonize the greatest country ever created. 

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It must break their tiny hearts to see Cuban protesters waving American flags and Haitian officials asking the White House for American troops to keep order. Don’t those people know America is a racist, colonial power that feasts on the poor?

Besides, everything is free in Cuba, right?

Sanders can’t possibly be as ignorant as he seemed Monday night when he urged the Cuban government "to respect opposition rights and refrain from violence." 

Get real. Opposition rights don’t exist in Cuba and haven’t for 60 years because the Castro brothers and their fellow thugs have used violence to repress any hint of opposition. Were it not for government violence, democracy would have come to the island decades ago.

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Sanders also essentially blamed the chronic deprivations on the American embargo, saying "it has only hurt, not helped, the Cuban people."

This is more ignorance pretending to be compassion, and a prime example of what the late William Safire called the ethos of the "blame-America-firsters." Whatever and wherever the problem, pin it on Uncle Sam. Even when it’s not true.

As I have written before, President Bill Clinton twice sent emissaries to Cuba with the goal of lifting the embargo. Both times, the Castros said no, preferring the black-market system that allowed them and their cronies to control imports and exports and profit from gouging.

They also used a dual currency system that effectively turns most workers into serfs. 

President Barack Obama, who specialized in bad deals, lifted the embargo and got nothing in exchange, which is why President Donald Trump was right to reimpose it. 

Even now, the embargo exempts most food and medicine, and many building supplies. The problem is that communism has wrecked the economy, so an island rich in resources and talent is impoverished and ignorant.

That’s the record of socialism and communism throughout history and around the world, but Sanders et al. can’t bring themselves to admit it. To do so would be the death knell of their dreams of a leftist revolution here — and their own prominence.

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In fact, it must confuse them that millions from Latin America risk their lives and fortunes to get to our southern border. In their twisted minds, Americans should be rushing to the border to escape.

A related issue is playing out in the Biden White House, where President Biden and his minions are desperately trying to give the impression they are suddenly on the side of law enforcement in the battle for American cities. 

It’s been nearly two weeks since press secretary Jen Psaki launched the effort by claiming it was actually Republicans trying to defund the police.

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Even the lapdog press didn’t buy it and Psaki flopped. Still, there was Biden carrying the same water Monday as he played host to Dem mayors and police chiefs, including Eric Adams, the victor in the party’s New York mayoral primary. 

The dog and pony show offered an image of federal and local teamwork, but there was zero substance about stemming the illegal-handgun violence that accounts for nearly all urban murders and keeping criminals off the streets. 

Adams, who has declared himself the "new face" of the party, is a former member of the NYPD who made stopping the crime surge the heart of his platform. It remains perplexing why none of his seven well-funded rivals did the same. Instead, they stuck to their pregame talking points about inclusion, diversity and inequality.

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All of which is silly when bullets are flying in Times Square in the middle of the afternoon and minority neighborhoods are bearing the brunt of the slaughter. The blood of the innocents has a way of making even the best intentions look ridiculous, no matter the politicians’ skin color.

Adams played the good cop at Biden’s table, complimenting the president on his priorities and saying all the right things for the cameras. But beneath the bonhomie lurks a great divide about what Democrats stand for and what they stand against.

That the answer remains in doubt amounts to a self-inflicted wound, one Biden helped create when he ignored and made excuses for the murderous riots of 2020. Trying to placate the leftists, his constant prattling about "systemic racism" in law enforcement and the criminal justice system helps explain why virtually every police association supported Trump and why Republicans picked up House seats and kept 50 Senate seats. 

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Biden’s attempt to piggyback on Adams’ victory could mark a turning point in the administration, but for now, embracing such optimism about the president’s intent would be a fool’s errand. A soft-on-crime attitude is embedded in too many Dems and a new generation of local officials, and even prosecutors are committed to the belief that there are no bad people, only a bad America.

Fortunately, the people in really bad countries know better.

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