a question about cuba

[mark_foley]

XxGodJrxX summed it up pretty well.

[boracay]

[ QUOTE ]
The argument for the embargo on Cuba is that keeping business out of Cuba will keep the Castro regime as weak as possible, rather than having him pocket millions of dollars of money that goes in to the country.

I'd imagine that the embargo is not that popular in most of the country, but it is very popular down here in South Florida. The Cuban-American community in South Florida single-handedly keeps the embargo going against Cuba. The reason is that the Cuban-American community has a HUGE influence on electoral results in this country. For example, during the Clinton administration, an American plane full of Cuban exiles was shot down by Cuba over international waters, and America refused to act on it. Also, the Elian Gonzalez custody case was also a huge deal that turned many Cubans against the government. Soon after Federal Agents took custody of Elian Gonzalez; my parents, grandparents, and all of their friends defected from the Democratic party into the Republican party. A huge number of Cuban-Americans that would either vote Democrat, or not vote at all, came out in support of the Republican party. Bush then won the next election because he had 1725 more votes in Florida than Gore. Think about that: because of a group that makes up no more than 4% of the Hispanic population in this country (which I suppose would be around 1% of the total population), Bush was elected.

The strategic importance of Cuban-Americans in South Florida is apparent, after all, they make up a majority of Miami. Not keeping Cuban-Americans happy can lead a candidate to a major defeat in the next election.

[/ QUOTE ]

good point GodJr. but is it good for the USA? do you think castro would be a history for a long time without those regulations?

[AzDesertRat]

the boycott makes no sense considering the reasons for it and who our current trading partners are. I say screw the Cuban Americans in Miami and New York and allow common sense to prevail. Why aren't we boycotting China--they ran their people over with tanks---I don't think Fidel ever got that bad. He simply overthrew a corrupt government that we put in place and rebuked us (and looked like a hero) at the Bay of Pigs disaster.

And while we are at it, how about removing the tariffs on sugar too.

[XxGodJrxX]

I don't think it's a good thing, but then again, I also don't think that the Democrats are Commie-Lovers, that Elian Gonzalez was the messiah, etc.

Castro may or may not be gone without the embargo. Obviously, the embargo has not been very effective, even though it's been in place for four decades.

[Borodog]

A foreign embargo is nothing but an attack on the rights of the citizens of the embargoing nation. It's one of the most ridiculously moronic of government economic [censored] ups, and that's saying a lot.