Obama's Romance with Cuba
by Tibor R. Machan

I have always opposed the American government's policy toward Fidel Castro's Cuba.  The trade and travel restrictions were wrong and un-American to boot!

But I am also suspicious of President Obama's current initiative to treat Cuba as if it were some kind of benign country. It is still, as it has been for decades, a communist society where institutions such as the protection of and respect for individual -- especially private property -- rights required for freedom to flourish are systematically violated. As the late Susan Sontag observed, communism is successful fascism.

Personally Mr. Obama's attitude toward Cuba appears to flow from his general communitarian, even communist political philosophy.  He has been disparaging capitalism, as when he denied that those who become successful in commerce can take pride in that.  He believes they don't do it themselves but are to thank government for their wealth and success.  "You didn't build it yourself."

This is of course a partial truth in capitalism -- wealth stems from successful trading, which always involves several parties.  But their respective contributions are distinct and demonstrably their own, though sometimes hidden within multiple layers of productive and commercial connections.  Anyone who bothers to check out the source of wealth in near capitalist countries can discover that it is mainly the initiative of the participants in trade. "We" didn't do it for them, they did it!

Why is Obama trying so hard to deny all this?  Because of his ideological loyalty to the collectivist vision of society, following Karl Marx for whom the "human essence is the true collectivity of man."  But unlike Marx, who stood foursquare behind the communist doctrine and didn't feel he needed to disguise his loyalties, Obama is trying to confuse Americans and infuse the country with his garbled communism/socialism in ways palatable to the American voting public.

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