When it comes to improvement in relations between the U.S. and Cuba, incremental progress remains the name of the game. And given all the high-profile Florida elected officials who are still politically deterred from even traveling to Cuba, no major foreign-policy leaps seem in the offing. So, we continue to settle for incremental progress — for now.
Case in point: recently eased travel restrictions and the inclusion of TIA among airports cleared for direct charter flights to Havana. Welcome news, to be sure, but the vendetta-agenda politics and PACs out of South Florida still preclude truly significant changes. As in unfettered trade and travel between the U.S. and Cuba.
Another, more symbolic and subtle, case in point: Al Fox, the outspoken activist and advocate for ridding America of its Cold War-era approach to Cuba, spoke to the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa last week — and it was a love-in. Not just that the Tiger-members were tame, but that none of the usual suspects showed up to harangue or hector.
Granted, Tampa is not to be confused with Miami as a tinderbox of exile-driven emotion, but it has had its share of high-profile demonstrations and outspoken critics of American rapprochement with Cuba. They’ve not been no-shows at previous Cuba-centric conferences and debates that Fox, who has been a lightning rod on this subject, has been party to. But none were within a decibel’s distance last Friday. And nary a placard or a leaflet greeted the founder and president of the Alliance For Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation.
Call it incremental progress because time was when anyone speaking out in a major public forum about America’s unconscionably counterproductive Cuban policy would be a magnet for the anti-Castro zealots.
Among Fox’s major points:
*Bemoaned that other states’ trade missions — led by prominent elected officials — have been allowed, in effect, to trump Florida and cultivate the kinds of relationships that will pay economic dividends down the road. “I’m afraid Florida is getting left behind so that when there is a regime change or the trade embargo is lifted, that Florida won’t really be fully prepared to take advantage of our location advantage.”
*Lamented not just lack of help by those with serious political clout — but those who made common cause with the politically-savvy, Cuban-American obstructionists. “She (Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz) should be ashamed of herself. She makes Marco Rubio look like Mother Teresa.”
*Underscored his top lobbying priority: repealing the 2006 Florida law that prohibits public university faculty and students from using taxpayer money to travel to Cuba. No other state has such a law. “It makes Florida look like a backwater.”
*Didn’t see anything approaching a bonanza for TIA until unlimited travel is adopted. “How is Tampa going to sustain three, four flights a week? Not going to happen. The real business will come when Anglos can buy a ticket.”
*Although he lost a Congressional race to Kathy Castor in 2006, he acknowledged that he has voted for her since and has seen her expanding her involvement in the Cuba issue, most notably, of course, in pushing for the charter flights out of TIA that will begin next month. “In her heart she knows what’s right. She’s going to get there.”
*The real motivation behind those most vehemently defending the economic embargo and rigidly restricted travel: “This has nothing to do with Fidel Castro. It has everything to do with vengeance, pride, hatred and money. They want to overturn the results of 1958.”
One postscript.
Florida’s former CFO Alex Sink, who came ever so close to being elected governor last November, was among the luncheon attendees. In her own way, she ironically helped Fox make his point about those with clout not willing to use enough of it if potential political fallout were involved. Which, of course, it always is on this subject.
No guts, no glory, no matter.
Sink agreed in principle with reducing a number of restrictions and the need “to try something different.” But she was never of a mind to travel to Cuba herself on behalf of Florida. It was, she stressed, out of deference and “respect for my friends,” who harbor major misgivings about human rights abuses.
It’s a familiar politician’s refrain and typical political cover. It’s as much an obstacle as the vendetta agenda of the strident pols from the sovereign state of Little Havana.