Those expecting – and now hoping – for a more dramatic shift in Cuban-American policy continue to wax anxious and disappointed. President Barack Obama’s lifting of restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances is seen as more of a token gesture, one that merely undoes what his pandering predecessor had done.
The feeling is that in his heart of hearts President Obama would likely want to fast track improved relations with Cuba. It amounts to low-hanging fruit that has major economic, humanitarian and geopolitical upsides. And we need low-hanging fruit in the worst way.
But what the president doesn’t need is to give more ammo to his domestic political adversaries — Limbaugh, Cheney, Palin & Co. — who would characterize him as kowtowing to dictators or worse – unless he uses the proper rhetoric in referring to Cuba. That means the rhetoric of preconditions – as in political prisoners, human rights, and all things “democratic.” The approach is insulting to Cuba. Or to any other sovereign country.
Imagine our relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia or China, to name just three, if they were preconditioned on democratic reforms. But those countries are too globally important and too far away. Cuba is 90 miles away – and the rancor is personal — often familial — and hypocritical.
But even unequals, especially Cuba, won’t accept being dictated to. And as the U.S. State Department well knows, the first rule of good faith diplomacy is to never back the other side into a corner. Given the anti-sovereignty rhetoric from Obama and Dan Restrepo, his Senior Director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, there has to be some internal State Department-Administration strain on this one.