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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 01/20/2003 2:30:19 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:08:59 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
HAVANA - President Fidel Castro and millions of other Cubans voted yesterday in parliamentary elections where all 609 candidates ran uncontested. Many Cuban dissidents labeled the vote a farce and refused to participate.
State television showed Castro voting in the eastern city of Santiago, where he traditionally casts his ballot.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
October 20, 2002 Cubans Vote in Local One-Party Elections *** Government officials said voting was not obligatory and pointed to the high turnout as evidence of support for the political system. Some Cubans said they had no choice but to vote to avoid problems with neighborhood watch groups and the government. "I have to vote or I would be a marked person in my neighborhood and that can come back to haunt me," said a 45-year-old handyman. ***
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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In turn, the L.A. group was surprised at the degree of anti-American sentiment, something they had to process. "They had to ask themselves questions they'd never asked before" about how others see them, Warshafsky said. ……..For Eamon, the highlight was hearing Fidel Castro speak. "I had thought of him as seriously evil. I realized he's not evil, he's doing what he thinks is best. He has this sort of demeanor about him. Whether you like him or not, you respect him. It opened my eyes."*** - Eyes Wide Open
A capsule illustration of these different political ambitions can be found in the book Primary Colors , which describes, in thinly veiled fiction, Bill Clinton's road to the presidency. Primary Colors is an admiring portrait not only of the candidate, but of the dedicated missionaries-the true believing staffers and the long-suffering wife-who serve Clinton's political agendas, but at the price of enabling the demons of self.
These staffers-political functionaries like Harold Ickes and George Stephanopoulos-serve as the flak-catchers and "bimbo eruption"-controllers who clean up his personal messes and shape his image for gullible publics. But they are also the idealists who design his message. And in the end, they enable him to politically succeed.
It is Primary Colors' insight into the minds of these missionaries that is revealing. They see Clinton clearly as a flawed and often repellent human being. They see him as a lecher, a liar and a man who would destroy an innocent person in order to advance his own career. (This is, in fact, the climactic drama of the text). Yet through all the sordidness and lying, the personal ruthlessness and disorder, the idealistic missionaries faithfully follow and serve the leader.
They do it not because they are themselves corrupted through material rewards. The prospect of fame is not even what drives them. Think only of Harold Ickes, personally betrayed and brutally cast aside by Clinton, who nonetheless refused to turn on him, even after the betrayal. Instead, Ickes kept his own counsel and protected Clinton, biding his time and waiting for Hillary. Then joined her staff to manage her Senate campaign.
The idealistic missionaries in this true tale bite their tongues and betray their principles, rather than betray him. They do so because in Bill Clinton they see a necessary vehicle of their noble ambition and uplifting dreams. He, too, cares about social justice, about poor people and blacks (or so he makes them believe). They will serve him and lie for him and destroy for him, because he is the vessel of their hope.
Because Bill Clinton "cares," he is the vital connection to the power they need to accomplish the redemption. Because the keys to the state are within Clinton's grasp, he becomes in their eyes the only prospect for advancing the progressive cause. Therefore, they will sacrifice anything and everything-principle, friends, country-to make him succeed.
But Bill Clinton is not like those who worship him, corrupting himself and others for a higher cause. Unlike them, he betrays principles because he has none. He will even betray his country, but without the slightest need to betray it for something else-for an idea, a party, or a cause.* He is a narcissist who sacrifices principle for power because his vision is so filled with himself that he cannot tell the difference.
But the idealists who serve him-the Stephanopoulos's, the Ickes's, the feminists, the progressives and Hillary Clinton-can tell the difference. Their cynicism flows from the very perception they have of right and wrong. They do it for higher ends. They do it for the progressive faith. They do it because they see themselves as having the power to redeem the world from evil. It is that terrifyingly exalted ambition that fuels their spiritual arrogance and justifies their sordid and, if necessary, criminal means.
And that is why they hate conservatives. They hate you because you are killers of their dream. Because you are defenders of a Constitution that thwarts their cause. They hate you because your "reactionary" commitment to individual rights, to a single standard and to a neutral and limited state obstructs their progressive designs. They hate you because you are believers in property and its rights as the cornerstones of prosperity and human freedom; because you do not see the market economy as a mere instrument for acquiring personal wealth and political war chests, to be overcome in the end by bureaucratic schemes.
Conservatives who think progressives are misinformed idealists will forever be blind-sided by the malice of the left-by the cynicism of those who pride themselves on principle, by the viciousness of those who champion sensitivity, by the intolerance of those who call themselves liberal, and by the ruthless disregard for the well-being of the downtrodden by those who preen themselves as social saints.
Conservatives are caught by surprise because they see progressives as merely misguided, when in fact they are fundamentally misdirected. They are the messianists of a religious faith. But it is a false faith and a self-serving religion. Since the redeemed future that justifies their existence and rationalizes their hypocrisy can never be realized, what really motivates progressives is a modern idolatry: their limitless passion for the continuance of Them.***
*** In Quito, Ecuador, Chavez lashed out at his opponents as "a subversive movement from the far right, a fascist movement backed by economic elites." Chavez was to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on Thursday before returning to Caracas. Some strike leaders, meanwhile, were in the United States pleading their case with U.S. government and business leaders. Several nations voiced support for a so-called "Friends of Venezuela" proposal to strengthen the efforts of Gaviria, who has had little success in mediating talks since November.
"The solution must be democratic, constitutional, and, it seems, electoral," said Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday for a fishing trip with Venezuelan businessman Gustavo Cisneros. Carter, whose Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center also is trying to resolve Venezuela's crisis, said that he would meet with Gaviria and government and opposition leaders next week.*** Source
Hope he doesn't run into any swimming rabbits.
Let's see, 43 years later and they are still in the process of "perfecting" socialism. Another 40 years or so of this kind of perfecting and Cuba will be a true hell on earth. Right now it's still in purgatory, the process of removing all vestiges of freedom. Practice, practice practice, Fidel!
Deputies grew emotional and almost giddy during the tally, eventually applauding loudly after each vote. When the final vote had been declared unanimous, the deputies first stood stoically at attention for the Cuban national anthem, then held hands and swayed back in forth as they sang the socialist anthem, ``Internationale.'' Castro presided over the session and afterward personally greeted many of the lawmakers in the assembly. ***
Bill and Hillary will get the same treatment.
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