My Cuban family fled a dictator. Now I’m scared they’ll elect Trump
My Cuban family fled a dictator. Now I’m scared they’ll elect Trump
Democrats are finding it increasingly difficult to connect with Latino voters — especially Cubans, who associate left-wing politics with the communism that tore their country apart. Jesus Maria Alvarez reports on the deep rifts within his community in the battleground state of Florida
You know what's great for getting Cuban votes in Miami? Supporting sanctions and starving out Cuba.
The gusano voting bloc is mutually exclusive with people who don't like starving foreign countries.
There may be hope for Cubans who fled in the 90s due to famine, but the social relations and economic and cultural history of the ones who fled either fearing the wrath of the people they'd exploited or seeking to restore the privilege they had pre-revolution are always going to vote for the fascists.
76it blows my mind how much gusanos and evangelical chicanos & tejanos hold in common and i'm convinced that if they listened to the same music and spoke with the same accent; that they would be indistinguishable from each other.
1The gusano
You know there's a way to make your point politically without using literal slurs right?
-3it blows my mind how much gusanos and evangelical chicanos & tejanos hold in common and i’m convinced that if they listened to the same music and spoke with the same accent; that they would be indistinguishable from each other.
1
Cubans tend to vote conservative. They vote that way because the Republicans have done their usual job of non-stop messaging on Democrat = Commie Socialist.
Many fled Cuba because of castro’s communism, and they understandably don’t want that again. There’s the religious factor, as many of them are catholic and of course the republicans call the Dems “godless” or whatever too.
There’s also this perverse psychology where people from authoritarian and repressed countries move out to democratic countries and then suddenly miss “the good old days” where reductionist messaging and “strong man” leaders just told them they were strong and flexed at every opportunity, but blamed everyone else when that strength wasn’t effective. Beat those protesters and jail them, send the military to the borders, arrest anyone who doesn’t conform. They want the authoritarian back. And the republicans offer that populist messaging of the strong man who is going to kick everyone’s ass, including the ones in your own country who don’t fit “the norm”. I’ve worked with emigrées (?sp) from both Cuba and Russia and it never ceases to both anger and baffle me that they ran away from shitty, awful dictators and then turn around and want the same thing here in the US.
70I think what's missing from your analysis is that they tend to be socially conservative. As in, they don't like the gays and the atheists.
28I’ve worked with emigrées (?sp) from both Cuba and Russia and it never ceases to both anger and baffle me that they ran away from shitty, awful dictators and then turn around and want the same thing here in the US.
smells to me like it's probably related to the psychology behind prolonged abusive relationships, or people continually getting into abusive relationships.
7There’s the religious factor, as many of them are catholic and of course the republicans call the Dems “godless”
As if the Republican evangelicals actually had anything to do with christianism.
6It's not about what they actually do, it's about how they make you feel about what they say.
3
It just surprises me that this messaging is so effective when Trump would love nothing more than to send every brown person living in Florida straight to Cuba, American citizen or otherwise. It's a very strange sort of political climate where people who fear being deported back to Cuba are voting for the party promising mass deportations because... they don't like abortion? I can't quite wrap my head around it.
3When the axe came into the woods, many of the trees said, "At least the handle is one of us.”
6
59You understand that Castro went after than more than just slave owners right? It's super disingenuous to pretend that most of the 1.5 million people who have fled Cuba were slave owners.
21If they were fine with Batista being a military dictator, but drew the line at someone trying to upend his stint as one, I'm going to ask, why the military dictatorship didn't cause them to flee every time.
30They're cultists. If you talk to them in neutral sub, You'll find horribly defective logic and broken definitions ("Your definition of Anarchy is wRoNg, anarchy is an organised system!!!").
If you try talking to them in one of their sub, you'll get banned instantly. Socialists/communists are pro censorship and therefore pro coercion. No wonder, every communist state turned into dictatorship.
-10
Anticommunists are right-wingers, more news at 11.
51That's a nice part of accepting refugees from a state like Cuba. You pretty much get to selectively import the right-wing elements of their population.
Similar effect happens with Venezuelans. The ones who can afford to uproot their lives are also more likely to align ideologically with US politics.
I used to work with a lot of Cubans. My favorites were the old ones. They would tell me stories about living in Cuba under Castro back in the day. One thing that I always found interesting is how they said they were happier. It might just be nostalgia but I've heard from older people from Soviet areas too.
Life was slower and as long as you did your job certain things were guaranteed to you. In a capitalist system you have infinitely more purchasing power but they would make the analogy of addiction. In the US you are addicted to money so you need to work a lot more to pay the bills.
Whereas in Cuba you spend a lot more time idle and just living life, even if you're not able to purchase common items we consider essential. (Some days you go to store and there's no shoes, next day there's no bread, etc)
My least favorite were the 2nd generation ones. Like Marco Rubio. They don't understand the struggle but feel intensely like they do. Very strong opinions with very little nuance. I've met my fair share.
24
Like the people escaping islamist hell holes only to be pro sharia in Europe. And people escaping violence stricken African countries and then end up in gang Fights against their countrymen in Europe.
These people are just as much part of the problem in their old home country as they are in their new home country. But where probably affluent enough to buy a (very dangerous) trip out of their previous hell and want to make their new home into a nightmare.
This is not all of them btw.. this is a minority of the minority. The problem is, these people fuel the far right as if they are pooring liquid oxygen on the fire.
If trump ends up elected, I wish these people all the luck in the world. They will need it.
46Yeah, it seems many didn't have an issue with the evil shit just that they weren't on the top and/or were poor
4These people aren't trying to create communism in America, the older generation fled because communism was making society more equal, and they stood to lose, and are the most right-wing mfs you'll ever meet.
This applies a little less to the ones who fled after Reagan offered US citizenship and were mostly criminals who chose America over prison.
And not at all to the ones who fled during the 90s, fleeing famine after the USSR collapsed and the US wanted to make an example out of Cuba.
-3
WatchMojo's Top 10 gusano moments
26It's weird to me how many various Hispanic voters are pro-Trump. A lot of them are Catholic and anti-abortion, and single issue voters are nothing new, but still. I just cannot comprehend such a limited perspective.
16It's a combination of things -- Trump's agressive, chauvinistic persona maps well onto Latin concepts of machismo, and there's also a surprising strain of pull-the-ladder-up-behind-you thinking amongst established Hispanic families aimed at the current wave of migrants.
13"Fuck you got mine" is the most American thing
5
Many Chinese Americans are also conservatives, not just second or third generation but also first generation when they were the ones that fled China.
1
Citizens and immigrants need to be provided mandatory civics education, especially adults
14The Democratic candidates are not even leftist.
14If you break it down on a policy by policy basis (is this policy leftist?) like dems are certainly not leftist. People conflate being "left of republicans" with being "leftist" even though a lot of their positions are quite centrist.
7
tfw petty burgeois are mad that communism took their oligopolies
13Do they also support ending the embargo?
10Hmm maybe these things are connected!
10It's not like Bautista wasn't a dictator, so the question becomes why didn't they flee the dictator that allowed you to have slaves instead of the one that wanted every Cuban to have a house and be able to read.
15
I am terrified to talk to mine about politics. Even though the Suarez's are cool as shit, when it comes to Trump it is like I am talking to a bunch of terrified children.
8Stupid is as stupid does.
8Reminder.
The calls are coming from inside the house.
7i hope for most people who fled, that they would be able to vote. This is why america exists after all.
on a sidenote, i would be curious to ask maga people about what they think people moving from authoritarian or dictator type governments would think about trump. But then again they have such aggressive cognitive dissonance they'd be confused why they aren't voting for trump.
0The Independent - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
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MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed - United Kingdom
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cuban-latino-vote-trump-republicans-b2590277.html
-20Well Socialists/communists from lemmy.ml will tell you that you're wrong - you escaped from heaven on earth into capitalist exploitation grinder, and actually Cuba is perfect equal economy, destroyed by evil western sanctions.
I wish that was sarcasm, but it isn't
-27
