As someone whose parents honeymooned in Havana, taking a plane from Miami in June 1949, I couldn't agree more.
When I ran for Congress in Florida advocating an end to the Cuban embargo, both Democrats and Republicans treated me as a pariah for that view. Look what happened in Miami when Barack Obama wrote a Miami Herald article advocating travel to Cuba:
In 1995 when I was a staff attorney at the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida law school, our director, the foresighted Jon Mills, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and future dean of the law school, arranged for a panel discussion on resolving property claims in post-socialist Cuba.
The inclusion of some academics from (gasp) Cuba itself caused an incredible uproar. We were denounced in the state legislature. Our funding was threatened. While the conference did take place, Cuban-American protestors -- including at least one Republican state legislator -- picketed outside.
I could not believe it was 1996 and I was seeing people carry placards saying BETTER RED THAN DEAD. I remembered that from my childhood in the 50s and 60s, but we were now living in a post-Soviet world in which China was one of our biggest trading partners.
I couldn't agree more with Rep. Jeff Flake on Cuba policy even though I'm running against him for other reasons. He's a lonely voice of sanity on this issue. Check out the video.
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