Miami After Castro

Democracy could be the big winner if, as Miami's Cuban exile population fervently hopes, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro finally bites the dust.

Of course, it won't be Cuba that will be the beneficiary if Castro dies -- it'll be America.

You see, Cuban exiles in Miami have spent more than four decades bitching and moaning about Castro. They don't consider themselves to be Americans so much as displaced Cubans waiting to return to their native country, and all they do is vote for the most right-wing politicians they can find and pray for the day when they can finally go back home to Cuba.

Well, here's their chance. If Castro dies, I say they should all get on a boat and get the fuck back to Cuba. Sort of like the 1980 Mariel boatlift in reverse. Let them put their money, and their bodies, where their mouths are.

The funny thing is, of course, that the vast majority of them won't do it. They've bitched about it ever since 1959, but when the opportunity presents itself to go back to a ruined Cuba and help to rebuild the country and put it back together again, how much would you like to bet that most of them will prefer to remain in Miami and bitch and moan about whoever comes into power after Fidel?

But if they actually do what they've always said they've wanted to do, it'll be the best thing to happen to Florida since Ponce de León. Now maybe we'll have a fair election in that state.

Tom Moran

Note: It seems that I'm a little ahead of the curve on this story. Reuters is reporting that "The White House on Wednesday urged Cubans on the communist-ruled island and exiles living in south Florida not to begin a mass migration spurred by Cuban leader Fidel Castro's health problems." I think this is hilarious. Why the hell would people who have lived and suffered through the length of Castro's regime only want to leave the country when he dies? They wouldn't, of course -- this message was intended solely for the Cuban exile community. And we all know why that is, of course. Without the fanatical support of the right-wing nut-bag Cuban exiles, the Republicans are in real trouble at the Florida polls in November. And every November after that.