CEPR Attacks Ros-Lehtinen and Cuban-American Community

BY: RUDY MAYOR


We live in a generation, living in a country of fools, who have never had to defend their freedoms and therefore consider others who fervently have to defend theirs as uneducated radicals. These fools have manuevered themselves into the American mainstream and promoted an environment of luke warmness that had lost all vestiges of America's Revolutionary spirit. The present generation is one more willing, than the previous generation, to stand on its knees than die on its feet.

If being principled and supportive of democracy is unAmerican, when did this begin? Should Jews who called for the assassination of Adolf Hitler been called radical and unrighteous? Should we have allowed Communism to take over all of Europe and Asia because we weren't willing to sacrifice ourselves for what we know is morally right in our hearts? George Washington would find the present nation utterly unrecognizable by the lack of passion for the principles be fought for in 1776. The Founding Fathers were not fools, and those who have given their lives up in the defense of liberty didn't die in vain.

Today the Center for Economic Policy Research, a self-proclaimed “nonpartisan think tank that promotes democratic debate on economic and social issues” came out with a strong email against Cuban-American Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for her stances on Cuba and other Latin American countries. The email, which also attacked Rep. Connie Mack of Florida and other former State Department officials, did more than just aim at the neck of the future Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs committee. The email was a fiery attack on the entire Cuban-American community, which is made up of individuals who have had to flee their country in the hundreds of thousands from the 60's till today.

The email went so far as to say that Rep. Ros-Lehtinen gets cozy with terrorists and undermines her life-long commitment of promoting human rights in Cuba, Burma and other dictatorships around the world by calling her a “champion” of human rights in quotations. It reinforces a hurtful and inaccurate stereotype that Cuban-Americans, especially those in Miami, are right-wing nut jobs who are both too uneducated and too passionate to see the truth about Castro. Despite the groups non-partisan nature, it does say that at least Ros-Lehtinen is right on gay marriage and immigration. Needless to say, this organization is a front – question is who's behind it?

The CEPR calls Ros-Lehtinen's anti-Castro and anti-Communist beliefs “noisy rhetoric” that only reinforces “failed policies of the past administration.” Non-partisan, really? It seems that in this occasion like in so many others,economic oriented individuals who are also monolithic in their considerations for policy are willing to jettison the ideas of human rights and democracy in favor of policies that will simply enrich them. Behind the CEPR, must be two factions. One, being the far left in America that are in the same political beds as Fidel, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, as well as those American libertarians who are actively lobbying for open trade and travel with Cuba at all costs.

This stance, of course, is one that would bring a lot of money to both Castro and the big corporations that would be able to export to Cuba; clearly there is a lot of money at stake. It seems that this lobby is now resorting to the dirty tactics of painting Rep. Ros-Lehtinen and the entire Cuban-American community as a group of radicals in order to undermine the community's strong support for the embargo in Washington. We cannot and wont allow this dehumanizing and dishonorable portrayal of our community. We may be loud and passionate, but we are passionate about the things Americans used to be passionate about because they recently needed defending in Cuba's history as a nation. That is worth more than any dollar earned from the nation the Castro's have been exploiting since 1959.

Rubio Win Signals Rise of Politicians with Backbones

When I sat down for dinner with Marco Rubio and activists belonging to Students for Free Cuba at The George Washington University in April of 2009, Marco Rubio told us that he intended to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida. He knew that Governor Charlie Crist was interested but he didn't care. He knew that Barack Obama's broad and unsuccessful agenda would concern Americans and that conservatives would rightfully rally back. He knew that this election, more than elections before, would be about ideas and that the responce would be indicative of the dangerous leftist direction our country was taking.

Rubio told me that he inteded to focus on his fresh ideas for America and because his ideas for Florida were not Obama's or Crist's(essentially the same thing) that he could win the election. For Rubio, it was never about who the big names were endorsing or how much money he could raise; he knew that Americans were looking for a message that gave them hope and intended to rollback the big government policies of this Administration.

Crist's decision to run as an Independent after polls showed he would lose the Republican primary, sheds light on how little this election was about ideas for Crist and how much of it was a stepping stone to get ahead in politics. Flirting with the idea of being named Vice President under John McCain seemed to have likened Crist to the idea of seeking a national office.

Crist's actions and his uncommitted stances on issues showed how willing he was to mold himself just to get elected. This also showed how out of touch Crist really was. This election was less about the establishment and more about ideas and Crist's narcissitic "me-me-me" campaign similar to Arlen Specter's had no place in 2010. Floridians and Americans in general were looking for candidates with strong backbones that would oppose Obama's large government programs.

I am very happy that Marco Rubio won this election and not once did I doubt his ability to do it - not during dinner in April of 2009 and not any time since he declared. I will be proud to visit his office in January - here's to the "great right hope."

Check this Link out: March 2009 I was featured in a Marco Rubio email to raise money, one of the first campaign emails sent out by the Rubio campaign. http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2009/03/dude-wheres-my-money.html

Victory: Oh How Sweet It Is.