Doing Business With a Dictator
Peter Robinson ·
Jun 28, 2010 at 1:50pm
Mary Anastasia O'Grady notes that this week Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson will try to persuade the House to lift the travel ban on Cuba. What concessions does he expect the United States to extract from Fidel in return? Exactly none. What, O'Grady asks, does Peterson think he's doing?
[A] wave of European, Canadian and Latin American visitors since the mid-1990s hasn't changed a thing....[I]f Mr. Peterson wants to boost commerce why not push for passage of the Colombia free trade agreement? Why is he so interested in doing business with a dictator?
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Re: Doing Business With a Dictator
"Oh, isn't it obvious that Congressman Peterson is simply pandering to the Cuban-American vote?" I initially thought. Then I re-read the post and noticed that he's a Minnesotan Democrat. So there went that theory.
But O'Grady also notes that this is the aim of not just some obscure Rep. from Minnesota, but of the Obama administration itself. In that case, isn't it plausible that this is simply a matter of politics? It couldn't hurt for the Democrats to start working on the Cuban-American vote, which has generally leaned Republican.
Election politics aside, hasn't the Obama administration demonstrated that a key feature of its foreign policy is befriending dictators? Mr Robinson, I refer you to yourself: Barack Hearts Hugo.
Jun '10
Re: Doing Business With a Dictator
Considering the part of Minnesota that Collin Peterson represents, I'd guess that it's about (1) grain markets, (2) grain markets, and (3) grain markets. In most things, he tilts toward the middle, so I doubt that his motives are ideological.
Re: Doing Business With a Dictator
It sure seems like Castro isn't terribly worried about the degree to which American tourists might destabilize the regime. It's conceivable some Americans could make something of a difference at the margin. It's more conceivable that they'd be mostly be carefully funneled into potted resorts -- mojito fishbowls and lazy rivers for the Yankees, while over the fence life goes on as 'normal'.