WHAT BERNIE SANDERS SHOULD HAVE SAID ABOUT SOCIALISM AND TOTALITARIANISM IN CUBA

[George II]

(sorry for the all-caps, it's The New Yorker's headline)

By Masha Gessen February 25, 2020

There are two ways to misinterpret the comments Bernie Sanders made in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday night. When asked by the host, Anderson Cooper, to explain his long-ago praise of the achievements of Fidel Castro’s regime, in Cuba, Sanders said, “We are very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But, you know, it’s unfair to simply say, ‘Everything is bad.’ When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even though Fidel Castro did it?”

One way to spin these statements is to say that Sanders has finally been exposed as the socialist bogeyman that President Donald Trump and the Democratic contender Michael Bloomberg have been invoking, and that, if elected, Sanders will destroy the American way of life in favor of Soviet-style totalitarianism. This was the predictable reaction from the right. The predictable corollary from the left was to say, in effect, that Sanders is right: Cuba has the best education record in Latin America, and universal health care, too.

And then there was a third reaction. The writer Ana Simo responded to the interview with a two-word comment on Facebook: “Moral stupidity.” Another writer, Achy Obejas, commented, “ .?.?. And there goes Florida .?.?. ” Halfway across the world, the artist Tania Bruguera got off a plane in Milan, where she is mounting a show, and told me by phone that she “saw the news and thought, Oh, my God.”

These were not expressions of glee. None of these artists is a right-wing ideologue—all three are outspoken progressives, out lesbians, and potential Sanders voters. All three are also Cuban. Simo fled Castro’s homophobic purges as a young woman, in the late sixties, landed in Paris, and later moved to New York. Bruguera divides her time between New York, international travel, and Havana, where her work has been censored and she has been arrested for her art and her activism. Obejas came to the United States with her parents when she was a child, in 1962. She told me on the phone that she doesn’t call herself a socialist, though her political beliefs probably fit the label. But, she said, “It’s quite another thing to consider voting for someone who thinks that a place that caused my parents so much pain is not just O.K. but exemplary in some ways.”

LOTS more here:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-bernie-sanders-should-have-said-about-socialism-and-totalitarianism-in-cuba

[Magoo48]

1. What does Joe have to say about US relations with Cuba past and present?

[George II]

3. I'm sure he never praised Castro while they were in the midst of rounding up journalists....

....and dissidents and conducting mass executions of Cubans.

You could go to his next Town Hall and ask him.

[Magoo48]

6. I didn't ask what he didn't do.

[NurseJackie]

2. He simply doesn't have the "chops" to be the leader of the free world.

[tishaLA]

4. When Masha Gessen talks, I listen

Thanks for posting this.

[denem]

5. Devastating.

[mgcgulfcoast]

7. Washington post Castro was a spiritual beacon

when he died. Does everyone agree? They eventually changed the headline but really lets see who can name democrats who have been critical of castro over the last 30 years.

[George II]

8. Not being critical is one thing, praising is another.