Under the "Any idiot could see..." department are 2 articles in the NY Times today.
First is a story about the fact that today is the 50th anniversary of Castro's takeover in Cuba. Several years later, the US started a trade embargo that was certain to bring Castro to his knees. And it has clearly worked, as he is certain to die of old age any day now, having ceded power to his brother.
Any idiot could see long ago that this embargo is unproductive, along with being expensive and immoral, having deprived Cuban citizens of the comforts we take for granted, and making the US an easy scapegoat in Cuba for all their problems. But, because old Cuban exiles wield so much power, and nobody wants to look "pro-commie", this stupid policy lives on.
Also, the Times has an editorial in support of Sen. Jim Webb's efforts to re-assess our criminal justice policies. It seems we have a higher percentage of our citizens in jail than any other country, yet we still have plenty of crime. Any idiot could see that keeping non-violent drug offenders in jail for extremely long sentences is unfair, immoral, expensive and unproductive. But no politician wants to risk looking "soft on crime". So these policies live on.
In both of these cases, any idiot could see how stupid our policies are. Which means that our spineless politicians who fail to change these ridiculous failed policies are more than just any idiots....they are a special class of idiots!
These would be 2 great places for change we can believe in to start.
1 comment:
Hi Glenn-- I agree that the Cuban embargo is bad policy. But one important reason it's kept on: it's part of The Kennedy Legacy.
Don't underestimate the power of the Kennedy mystique. The Democrats may well choose a grossly unqualified woman to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate because of that sacred name.
On another note: I do wish the left in Boulder wouldn't point to Cuba as an island paradise, complete with 'Free Health Care.' (I'm not accusing you of this, by the way, just a side note.) But really, it's a big steamy tropical gulag and to pretend otherwise is nauseating.
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