ONCE AGAIN President Sneaky has made what I consider a correct move but in a, what seems typical for him, sneaky manner.
First it was Obamacare. American needs a national health care system. That the Obamacare needs lots of work to make it usable is another matter, but it was a step in the right direction.
Now, Cuba.
The U.S. has attempted - and failed - to embargo Cuba for more than 50 years. The Castros still are in charge even without their former backers, the now-defunct - perhaps temporarily defunct - Soviet Union.
Obungler saw the embargo failed to benefit the U.S. or the "oppressed" Cubans who remain in Cuba. (There are so many Cubans in South Florida - Cubans who swore they would go back "just as soon as" that if you don't speak Spanish you don't do business in Dade County.)
Nixon (re)opened China to the U.S. - a mistake since China now "owns" the U.S. China it may be recalled was the chief sponsor of North Korea and of what was North Vietnam; in other words, no friend of the U.S.
Reagan saw the Berlin wall come down and lead detent with the former Soviet Union. We have - or perhaps soon "had" thanks to Mr. Putin - business relations with the former enemy. The Soviet Union and the U.S. were combatants in a cold war and a number of proxy hot wars (including Israel and its neighbors) since the end of World War II. Like China, no friend of the U.S.
Never mind that before the guns had cooled in 1945 the U.S. was rebuilding Germany and Japan at a cost U.S. manufacturers still are paying.
Cuba NEVER was an enemy. It never attacked a U.S. operation, and with the Guantanamo base, it had (has) plenty of opportunity.
THE PROBLEM with the president who would be king is that he is trying to rule by fiat, by executive order.
He's not the first to issue executive orders, nor will he be the last.
But he is sneaky about his intents.
The U.S. has a congress and a supreme court that are supposed to be equal with the executive branch. They are supposed to work in concert.
Obungler contends that he can't get anything thorough Congress because of the nasty Republicans.
Granted, the two parties probably have never been as diametrically opposed as during the current administration, but past administrations with a congress controlled by the opposing party HAVE made great progress.
Obungler acts like a thief in the night, sneaking his desires into law by either by-passing Congress or by inundating Congress with bills of thousands of pages and demanding immediate passage - don't bother to READ the bill, just pass it - which is how we got the Obamacare kludge. (Again, IMO the U.S. needs a better social welfare program.)
The U.S. can afford this if it will stop sending money - and jobs - across the border and overseas to countries that should stand on their own financial feet. How many American dollars go into foreign rulers' pockets rather than to the people for whom the money is intended?
I agree with President Sneaky - we should deal with Cuba as the U.S. deals with other countries. There may NOT be an immediate improvement in what Americans term "basic rights," but there also won't be a degradation of what rights are extent now. Over the long term I think - I hope - that commercial and social intercourse with the United States will benefit the average Jose Cuban.
It may LOOK as if the U.S.-Cuban detent is one sided, with the U.S. giving up everything and getting very little in return, but in time, the Communist influence will diminish as even the (aging) government will once again realize the benefits of democracy.
TO THEIR CREDIT, the Cubans of South Florida have so far kept their expressions of their pro or con opinions of Sneaky's latest fiat to verbal sparring; let's hope it stays that way.
