RUTHFULLY YOURS

Thanks to Obama’s reopening official relationships with Cuba, as well as the fondness that Hollywood and the media have for that Caribbean island, young Americans grow up thinking that Cuba is cool and that communism can’t be that bad. Four young men who traveled there, though, discovered the ugly truth: communist countries are every bit as bad as traditional Americans have been saying for the last 100 plus years.

One of the most shocking things about the 2020 election is how many people support a man who has had a lifelong love affair with totalitarian governments. We’re used to the fact that, for decades now, Democrats have viewed soft-socialist Europe as superior to a free and constitutionally governed America. They never did figure out that Europe had that kind of glamorous socialism because America footed the bill by absorbing all of Europe’s defense costs.

Bernie, however, has no time for the weak sauce that is European socialism. Bernie’s love is for hardcore communism. Everyone knows that he honeymooned in the Soviet Union and praised the wonders of breadlines. Some, though, forget that he has also had a love affair with Cuba’s communist dictatorship. Bernie wants the real socialist deal: the end of all private forms of ownership, the consolidation of everything in government hands, and himself as the head of the government. He’s not a cute, crazy grandfather. He’s a wannabe Lenin.

But while Bernie lived through the years of Nazi Germany (a socialist movement), China’s deadly Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the Soviet Gulags, the North Korean concentration camps, and all the other murderous depredation that Bernie’s style of socialism imposes on citizens, college students know nothing about these things. Instead, starting practically in kindergarten, they’re given a gauzy, loving view of certain favored communist countries, with Cuba topping the list.

No matter where you look – internet searches, glossy magazines, PBS shows, mainstream media shows – Cuba is presented as a romantic, vibrant place, with brightly painted buildings, classic cars, beautiful nature, and seductive music. Heck, even Obama went to Cuba and was celebrated there.

Moreover, entertainment stars go to Cuba and come back raving about its wonders. That was the case with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, two people who have made it in America (although they can’t be bothered to stand for the National Anthem), and thought Cuba was awesome – probably because they got the star treatment. Other stars who raved about their visits to Cuba are Rihanna, Mick Jagger, Kate Perry, Usher, Ludacris, Conan O’Brien, Paris Hilton, Naomi Campbell, Questlove, Benicio del Toro, Steven Spielberg (who hung with Fidel Castro), Kevin Costner, and more.

(There are also stories that celebrities are placed in rooms with hidden cameras and then sent prostitutes. Once they disport themselves with the prostitutes, the Cuban government blackmails them into becoming cheerleaders for the Cuban communist system.)

Four college students affiliated with Turning Point USA recently went to Cuba and, denied the star treatment meted out to the Hollywood types, decided that there was nothing glamorous or cool about it. Instead, they found what others find when they end up in a communist country: an impoverished police state in an advanced stay of decay.

Clocking in at 14 minutes, the video may seem long, but that changes once you start watching. At that point, all that you keep saying to yourself is, “Thank God I’m an American in America.”

After you’ve watched the video, think about sharing it with your high school or college-aged students. It will be the first time they’ve been exposed to an alternative narrative about that hip, cool, communist place so near to bustling, vibrant Florida.