Rare News Desk
Some politicians seriously donʼt get it. Take Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) who took to the floor this week and spoke about Cuba in glowing terms. He had recently visited the country and, clearly, greatly enjoyed his time. The only thing missing from this report on his trip was any mention of the fact that the people of Cuba are oppressed by a totalitarian regime. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, had a few things to say in response. It was awesome.
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The speech lasted a little under 15 minutes as Rubio spoke from the heart with few notes, the Miami Herald calling the speech “the best oration of his career.” He tied Cubaʼs history to the situation in Venezuela, showing that the latter country could easily find itself in the same situation as the former.
“They look more and more like Cuba economically and politically every single day,” said Rubio. “Whatʼs the first thing the Venezuelan government did when these broke out? They shut off access to Twitter and Facebook and the Internet. They ran CNN out of there. They closed down the only Colombian station. Years before, they had closed down all the independent media outlets that criticized the government … Where did they learn that from? From Cuba. And yet we have to listen to what a paradise Cuba is.”
To refute this, Rubio pointed out that plenty of people risk their lives to get from America to Cuba, but people only go the other way when on the run from the law.
He pushed back on certain aspects of Harkinʼs remarks, such as his praise for their Cubaʼs literacy rate, saying “Hereʼs the problem: They can only read censored stuff … Itʼs great to have literacy but, if you donʼt have access to the information, whatʼs the point of it?”
Rubio also pointed out that “Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism” and went on to back it up with examples.
“Let me tell you what the Cubans are really good at,” he said. “They donʼt know how to run their economy, they donʼt know how to build a country. They donʼt know how to govern a people. What they are really good at is repression.”
He went on to say “They have exported repression in real time in our hemisphere right now,” showing slides from Venezuela, including a man in jail for protesting Cuba and a beauty queen who had been shot in the head by the Venezuelan security forces. He called the government of Venezuela “Puppets of Havana,” and went on to say “This is the government that the Cubans support. Not just verbally, not just emotionally, but with training and tactics. This is what they do.”
Harkin had cited a poll saying more Americans want normal relations with Cuba. “More americans want normal relations with Cuba. So do I — a democratic and free Cuba. But you want us to reach out and develop friendly relationships with a serial violator of human rights … they are always on the side of the tyrants.”
Rubio spoke directly to those in power who might be watching in Cuba. “I hope you see that, in America, we are a free society. Youʼre allowed to come on the floor and youʼre allowed to say and spread whatever you want. You think Cubaʼs a paradise … Youʼre free to say that … but weʼre also free to come here and tell the truth.”
One of the highlights was when Rubio suggests that maybe his colleagues should try getting more than a dictatorʼs point of view.
“Ask to meet with the dissidents and the human rights activists that are jailed and repressed and exiled … I bet you youʼre going to hear something very different than what you got from your hosts on your last trip to the wonderful Cuba, this extraordinary socialist paradise. Because itʼs a joke.”
Rubio closed by addressing the tweets he received from young Venezuelans before Twitter was shut down in that country.
“What they want is what we have, the freedom and the liberty … and, if America and its policy-makers are not going to be firmly on the side of freedom and liberty, who in the world is … if weʼre prepared to walk away from that … this century is going to be a dangerous and dark one.”
Take a seat and listen to the whole thing. Itʼs pretty fun to see him put the hurt on the clueless Harkin. The only thing that was missing was a mic drop at the end.
