Bernie Sanders has a 100 percent rating from the American Civil Liberties Union. His support for individual political rights is so unwavering he has called for the enfranchisement of all of America’s incarcerated citizens. His belief in freedom of expression is so unyielding he has scolded progressive college students
for shutting down the speeches of far-right speakers. “To me, it’s a
sign of intellectual weakness,” the Vermont senator said in 2017. “If
you can’t ask Ann Coulter, in a polite way, questions which expose the
weakness of her arguments, if all you can do is boo or shut her down or
prevent her from coming, what does that tell the world?”
One can reasonably critique Sanders’s remarks in political terms. Given the Cuban-American vote in Florida — and/or the devout anti-communist boomer bloc across the nation — the senator might have been wise to put more emphasis on his condemnation of the Cuban government’s authoritarianism and less on the unfairness of how the regime’s legitimate achievements have been elided.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/bernie-sanders-fidel-castro-60-minutes-interview-cooper.html
Read more at: Bernie Sanders Praised Fidel Castro, But So Did Obama
One can reasonably critique Sanders’s remarks in political terms. Given the Cuban-American vote in Florida — and/or the devout anti-communist boomer bloc across the nation — the senator might have been wise to put more emphasis on his condemnation of the Cuban government’s authoritarianism and less on the unfairness of how the regime’s legitimate achievements have been elided.
But
as a substantive matter, the notion that Sanders’s acknowledgement of
the Castro regime’s accomplishments betrays his secret sympathy for
authoritarian communism is absurd. It is a fact that Cuba has one of the
highest-performing education systems in Latin America, while its medical system has enabled its people to enjoy life expectancy and infant mortality rates
similar to those of U.S. residents despite the island’s relative
poverty. Meanwhile, with regard to Sanders’s remarks from the 1980s, the
claim that Castro’s early social programs mitigated popular opposition
to his government is endorsed by many historians of the region.
If offering an (accurately) positive assessment of any
aspect of an authoritarian communist regime’s record is tantamount to
endorsing its form of rule, then Barack Obama is an authoritarian
communist:
Read more at:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/bernie-sanders-fidel-castro-60-minutes-interview-cooper.html
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/bernie-sanders-fidel-castro-60-minutes-interview-cooper.html
Read more at: Bernie Sanders Praised Fidel Castro, But So Did Obama
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