Obama and Fidel Castro, The Similarities

February 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Something interesting came across my email today for sharing. Being of Cuban descent, I can confirm that my family was also displaced when a regime came into town promising to restore the health of a country suffering from corruption in power. No one thought the eloquent and charming young leader would end up stripping their families of everything they had ever worked for. But it happened and this is a story you should know:

I remember asking dad about Castro when I was about  9 years old. I asked, “Is Castro a good guy or bad?”   

Dad said he couldn’t tell!! This was about 1955. We  were living in Louisiana at the time. Dad was in the army  there.   

Cuba was fairly close and in the news a lot. The  Cubans were asking the same question! Ike was president.   

This past July, we had the pleasure of sharing a  summer barbecue with a refugee from Cuba. Our dinner  conversation was starkly different than most.  

This refugee came to the United States as a young  boy in the early 1960s. His family was more fortunate than  most as they were able to bring a suitcase and $100 when  they fled Castro’s newly formed revolutionary paradise.   

Our dinner consisted of all-American fare:  hamburgers, potato salad, watermelon and fresh ears of sweet  corn. This is a menu shared with family and friends  nationwide, while celebrating the birth of our beloved  America on the Fourth of July.   

We began with a simple discussion about our country  and the direction it has taken since Barack Obama came to  power. We shared the usual complaints about the sour  economy and liberal social engineering emanating from the  rulers in Washington.   

But then he said it. The sentence came naturally.  I assume it was unplanned. But it carried the weight of a  freight train. “You know when Castro took power, none of us  knew he was a Communist.”   

We sat stunned. He continued, “Yes, we all thought he was a patriot, a nationalist. Before the revolution he didn’t sound like a radical.”             The comparison at this point was easy, and I  interjected, “You mean just like Barack Obama?” 

He responded, “Yes, just like Barack Obama.”   

He continued, “We were all shocked as the government  just continued to grab more power. First they said the  revolution is over, so please turn in your guns. We all complied.”   

“I remember my uncle saying after it started,  ‘Castro will only nationalize some of the big industries, he  will never come and take our family hardware store.’ But  that is exactly what happened, Castro started with the sugar  mills and the large industries, but they eventually came and  knocked on the door of our family hardware store. My family  had run this store for generations. They said we now own  the hardware store, you work for us. And that nice, large  four-bedroom home you own, it is now our property also and  you can move yourself and five children into two rooms of  the house because others are moving in with you.”   

The lesson learned from this discussion is a lesson  most Americans refuse to hear. Political leaders can lie  about their agenda and once in office they can take totally  unexpected turns.   

If you had asked us three years ago if we thought  General Motors would be nationalized, we would have never  believed it. We could never contemplate a country where the  rule of law, the most fundamental building block of a  justice society would be evaporating just like it did in  Castro’s Cuba in the early 1960s.   

But the news of injustice keeps increasing.

Black  Panthers are not charged with wrongdoing by the U.S.  Department of Justice because their crimes are against  whites. The bondholders of GM are stripped of their assets without due process by the government. Governmental leaders  are bribed in full daylight only to have all investigation  of the crimes stifled by the Attorney General. The U.S.  borders are overrun with crime and illegal activity and the  leaders in D.C. act as if it is important to protect the  lawbreakers while the innocent are killed and overrun. When  local communities attempt to enforce the law, they are  ridiculed and threatened as racists and bigots. They are  sued by the very administration entrusted with enforcing  the law.   

Without the rule of law the U.S. Constitution is a  sham. Without the rule of law our beloved America is  swiftly becoming a country where only the well connected and  politically powerful will be safe. As Michelle Malkin has  so eloquently explained in her recent book, a culture of  corruption has replaced honest government.   

The only way this problem will be fixed is by  massive citizen action. All honest citizens that want to be  treated equally must come together and demand that the  favoritism, the bribes, the uneven enforcement of law end  now.

And yes, it can happen here.