A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day

They say that even a broken clock is right twice a day, and that is sort of how I feel about Ron Paul. Don't get me wrong. I think he's a racist nut-job, and he would be an absolute disaster as president (and it makes me very happy that he has no chance of ever gaining that office). But even a racist nut-job can be right about something once in a great while. And I have found something that Paul is right about.

He is right about our policy towards Cuba. For the last 50 years we have tried to intimidate and embargo Cuba into submission. We have tried to do this because we don't approve of their communist government -- ignoring the fact that although the Cuban people may not have the kind of government we prefer, the people are much better off than they were before Castro came to power. They have the highest literacy rate in the hemisphere, free and excellent medical coverage for all their citizens, and even the poor are assured of decent food and housing.

Our policy toward Cuba has been an abject failure and I am amazed that we still cling to it as though someday it still might work. Cuba is not now, and never has been, a danger to the United States. We need to realize that it is none of our business how the Cubans govern themselves, and we should normalize our relationship with that country -- just like we have done with other countries whose governments we disapprove of (like Russia, Vietnam, China, etc.). If we can talk to and trade with those countries, there is no real reason why we can't do the same with Cuba.

And that is where I find I agree with Ron Paul. Here is what he says about our failed Cuban policy:

"I think it's time ... to quit this isolation business of not talking to people. We talked to the Soviets. We talk to the Chinese. And we opened up trade, and we're not killing each other now. We fought with the Vietnamese for a long time. We finally gave up, started talking to them, now we trade with them. I don't know why — why the Cuban people should be so intimidating."


"I think we're living in the dark ages when we can't even talk to the Cuban people. I think it's not 1962 anymore. And we don't have to use force and intimidation and overthrow of a — in governments. I just don't think that's going to work."