President Joe Biden and his far-left colleagues in Congress have a major dilemma. The recent anti-government protests in Cuba have brought the dangers and risks associated with total government control to the forefront in a manner that Democrats can’t hide from the American public. As Americans witness the events in real-time, Democrats have a major dilemma. If they condemn the policies in Cuba, they are, in essence, admitting that the policies that they endorse and promote are dangerous and doomed to fail. Conversely, if they do nothing, they will be turning their backs on the notion of freedom, and bolstering their support for total government control, despite the dangers it poses.
The protests in Cuba are in response to decades of government control, tyranny, and oppression against the Cuban people. As reported by the BBC, one protestor named Alejandro stated, “This is the day. We can’t take it anymore. There is no food, there is no medicine, there is no freedom. They do not let us live. We are already tired.” Some of the protesters also chanted “Freedom,” “Enough,” and “We Want Liberty.”
Mark Levin previously provided a very good explanation of socialism, which he deemed an essential element of totalitarianism. Socialism is promoted as a system that is fair and that creates social justice. In reality, socialism is like a police state that spreads poverty through redistribution, where the state is the master, and where decision-making is exercised by a few people who are not concerned with the rights of the individual but on the equality of distribution. With this backdrop, it is easy to understand why freedom-loving people would desperately want to escape a socialist regime, and why doing so could be so difficult.
As expected, Democrats initially tried to deflect attention away from the real problem, and to attribute the protests to concerns with COVID-19. As reported by Fox News:
Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary for the department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, posted, “Peaceful protests are growing in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID case/deaths & medicine shortage. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors.”
The fact that Democrats blamed COVID-19 for the protests is understandable. After all, the people of Cuba are protesting against total government power and control, which Biden and many Democrats in Congress promote. The Cuban people are sick and tired of the government telling them what to do and how to live, and are fed-up with being silenced and threatened by the government.
Notably, some Republicans in Congress voiced support for the people of Cuba. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tweeted, “Florida supports the people of Cuba as they take to the streets against the tyrannical regime in Havana. The Cuban dictatorship has repressed the people of Cuba for decades & is now trying to silence those who have the courage to speak out against its disastrous policies” Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, “People in Cuba are protesting 62 years of socialism, lies, tyranny & misery not “expressing concern about rising COVID cases/deaths. Why is it so hard for @potus & the people in his administration to say that?”
As if on cue, Biden subsequently issued a “delayed” statement through the White House Press Office Biden. As reported by Townhall, Biden stated:
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime. The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.”
Biden’s statement should leave Democrats scratching their heads because it is inconsistent with the policies that he, and some of his far-left colleagues, have promoted since the day he took office.
In a recent article in Newsweek, Senator Rick Scott laid out the administration’s socialist agenda. According to Scott:
Redistribution of wealth, loss of free speech, disarming the population, attacking religion and religious freedom—this is systemic socialism. It’s what Joe Biden and the Democrats are trying to implement right out in the open.
Joe Biden doesn’t call what he’s doing “socialism” because he knows it would be unpopular. Democrats and their media partners also reject that moniker, noting that socialism has historically been defined as collective ownership (usually spearheaded by the government) of the means of production. And that’s not what Democrats are doing.
Isn’t it? What does collective ownership of the means of production mean in the information age, rather than the industrial age when European nations tried and failed to implement a socialist utopia?
The political party that controls the White House and both houses of Congress is proposing redistributing wealth to create a massive cradle-to-the-grave welfare state. It’s working with allies in government, corporate America, unions, Hollywood and academia to tell every American what they can say, think and believe. Together they’re inciting mobs to “cancel” people who disagree with them or who dare speak up against the cultural and economic values that they espouse. They’re redefining language to fit the demands of a cultural agenda that rejects the biology of males and females, defines everyone by their race, gender or sexual orientation and demeans faith and the nuclear family.
Assuming that Scott’s assessment is on-point, what, then, should Americans make of Biden’s recent statement? If Biden is sincere, which is highly doubtful, is he saying that the federal government should primarily stay out of the way? Is he saying that big government is dangerous? If he takes this approach, he will likely face major backlash from many on his “team,” and with voters who supported him in 2020. Also, how would he reconcile this approach with such things like HR1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, both of which were intended to give the federal government power and control over the nation’s elections? What about critical race theory, which is permeating our schools, contest-based speech suppression, efforts to eliminate the Second Amendment, door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination “checkers,” and/or efforts to weaken, defund, and/or eliminate the police? How can Biden allegedly “support” the freedom of the Cuban people when he supports total government control over the American people?
If, on the other hand, Biden’s statement is mere lip-service, it will serve to confirm his commitment to a socialist-like, government-controlled, anti-Constitution, and freedom-opposing agenda no matter the cost. Interestingly, in his “statement,” he simply pointed out that the people of Cuba have certain rights, “including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future.” At no point in his statement did Biden condemn any specific policies imposed by the Cuban “government.”
Biden is in a bind of his own making. Regardless of how he handles this, Biden and the Democrats will have a problem. This time, however, they can’t simply hide or try to deflect. Somehow, they must address it. The American people are closely watching and waiting to see how they choose to handle it.
Mr. Hakim is an attorney, writer, and commentator. His articles have been published in The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, The Epoch Times, American Thinker and other online publications. He has also been a regular guest on One America News Network’s Tipping Point.
Twitter: @ThoughtfulGOP
THE THOUGHTFUL CONSERVATIVE 