THE LEFT MISFIRES AT CASTRO

Late to the front on Castro and ever relunctant to condemn him for his repression, his gulags, his murders and his long-winded speeches, elements of the left have finally come up with a petition of sorts that will be delivered to the Cuban mission to the UN as well as a few lefty publications. It's a token effort--petitioning a dictator will have no effect beyond making the signatories feel good--but at least it's a start. Here's the text:

We are women and men of the democratic left, united by our commitment to human rights, democratic government and social justice, in our own nations and around the world. In solidarity with the people of Cuba, we condemn the Cuban state's current repression of independent thinkers and writers, human rights activists and democrats. For "crimes" such as the authorship of essays critical of the government and meeting with delegations of foreign political leaders, some 80 non-violent political dissidents have been arrested, summarily tried in a closed court, without adequate notice or counsel, convicted, and given cruel, harsh sentences of decades of imprisonment. These are violations of the most elementary norms of due process of law, reminiscent of the Moscow trials of the Soviet Union under the rule of Stalin.

The democratic left worldwide has opposed the US embargo on Cuba as counterproductive, more harmful to the interests of the Cuban people than helpful to political democratization. The Cuban state's current repression of political dissidents amounts to collaboration with the most reactionary elements of the US administration in their efforts to maintain sanctions and to institute even more punitive measures against Cuba.

The only conclusion that we can draw from this brute repression is that Cuban government does not trust the Cuban people to distinguish truth from falsehood, fact from disinformation. A government of the left must have the support of the people: it must guarantee human rights and champion the widest possible democracy, including the right to dissent, as well as promote social justice. By its actions, the Cuban state declares that it is not a government of the left, despite its claims of social progress in education and health care, but just one more dictatorship, concerned with maintaining its monopoly of power above all else.

Take a look at the second paragraph. These lefties, statists all, link Castro's repression to "collaboration with the most reactionary elements of the US administration" on the question of sanctions. The same sanctions that the notorious "reactionary" Bill Clinton, and George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, and Jimmah Carter, and Ford and Nixon and Johnson and Kennedy all left in effect. Today's lefties can't even bring themselves to castigate Castro without somehow condemning George W. Bush as well. All roads lead to Bush. They're positively obsessed with the man.

Then they say that Castro can't be a lefty because he's repressive. Lefties can't be dictators? Tell that to Stalin, and Pol Pot, and Ho Chi Min, and Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega and a zillion other leftists who ran or are on the process of establishing tyrannies. To say nothing of Hitler's National Socialists.... What's more interesting about the petition is who hasn't signed it. Jimmah Carter, Jesse Jackson, John Conyers...men only too happy to hug Castro and condemn America for opposing him.

The American left just can't get anything right.

(via InstaPundit)

UPDATE: The linked site includes a comments section, and most readers are delivering a proper trashing to the Castro petition. I joined in with the following:

I have two problems with this petition. First, it's weak and tries to link Castro and Bush with that "amounts to collaboration" nonsense. If you want to find actual collaboration with Castro, look no further than the left wing of the Democrat party. Hollywood and media elites, Ron Dellums, Jesse Jackson, Jimmy Carter et al have spent decades coddling Castro. The GOP has been solidly against Castro and Communism for decades. Second, what is this petition supposed to accomplish other than making the signatories feel good about themselves? Is even one person languishing under Castro's thumb helped one bit by this thing? Is there any chance at all that any of them will be? All this petition does is give lefties some fig leaf to hide behind while they denounce any and every action the Bush administration does or does not undertake to counter Castro and free Cuba.