[chaorace]

The current U.S. position towards Cuba continues to puzzle me. Their geopolitical stance is nowhere near being on the same level as North Korea or Iran. Given Cuba's proximity and relative productive capacity you'd think that we'd be easy allies if only they hadn't upset a bunch of dead politicians 60 years ago.

[reducesuffering]

While Florida was/is a swing state in US elections, whoever secures the ex-Cuban vote wins a massive amount of electoral votes. Republicans are fine jockeying against Cuba "because communism", and so the Democrats are in a pickle in that the right thing to do would be to improve relations with Cuba but it guarantees to hand Florida over to the Republicans who will then have the presidency and proceed to treat Cuba as-is.

If Florida remains reliably Republican anyway, it's possible the Democrats may get enough electoral support from the rest of the country to still win future presidencies and ease up on Cuba without caring about the Florida ex-Cuban vote.

[topkai22]

Yeah, this is basically the answer- Cuban American lobby is solidly against the current regime. Less so than they used to be, but there are still plenty of voices strongly opposed to normalization and few strongly for it.

Without a strong counter vailing lobby there is little reason for politicians to risk alienating the Cuban bloc to normalize relations with a fairly repressive government that still remains broadly anti-American and opposed to US interests.

[1123581321]

Cubans who emigrate vote relatively conservatively, so perhaps it’s in the interest of the Democratic Party to make it more attractive to stay if most existing anti-Cuba Floridians are not marginal/swing voters.

[seniorivn]

They are a hostile dictatorship, with zero resources but their oppressed people. Why would USA be interested in allying with them?

[atlas_hugged]

Their government is hostile like a friend’s chihuahua. It will make it known it doesn’t like you, but it ain’t going to do anything about it because it can’t.

The people on the other hand are truly wonderful human beings that would love to be able to have visitors or visit other countries themselves.

Who cares if some politicians feelings get hurt. People want to be free to do what they want in a supposedly free country.

[joshlemer]

> it ain’t going to do anything about it because it can’t

And, it can't because it's too poor to be able to do anything, which is partly a result of the sanctions.

[spiderice]

What does any of what you said have to do with the US though?

[ImJamal]

If you open up trade they will become stronger. Look at China before and after we opened up trade with them. What happens of Cuba becomes more powerful and is still hostile while being so close to the US?

[energy123]

The US should oppose expansionist dictatorships that attempt to alter the status quo via forceful revisionism. That's Russia in Ukraine and China in Asia.

I don't see how opposing Cuba achieves anything in the US interests.

[AnimalMuppet]

Cuba was in the "attempt to alter the status quo via forceful revisionism" club. They had literally thousands of soldiers and "advisors" in various hot spots, trying to export the revolution.

That was the 1970s, though. Cuba was allegedly involved in the coup in Venezuela in 1992; arguably, the chavismo government would not have happened without Cuban involvement. That government still rules Venezuela.

Are they still trying to stir up trouble? If not, how long ago did they stop? I don't know. But there definitely were reasons to impose sanctions on Cuba.

[fjdjshsh]

I keep seeing this "expansionist dictatorship" applied to China when the USA is discussed. The USA has invaded plenty of countries in the last few decades, has a history of colonialism (Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico...sure, less than some European countries, but still).

Which countries has China invaded in the past few decades?

[energy123]

Did you say "last few decades" to conveniently exclude their invasion of Vietnam? Not that it matters. Policy should not be made based on a naive extrapolation of historical track record. Culture, interests and leadership are all things that change over time.

Modern China, like Russia, but unlike other autocracies such as Cuba or Saudi Arabia, is a revisionist power - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revisionist_state

Their publicly broadcasted intention is to change the status quo, forcefully if needed. That's a euphemism for invading Taiwan. They keep saying it, over and over. Beyond that, there's a militarism, nationalism and irredentism that permeates Xi's leadership and the culture he has created in his country, which did not exist to the same extent under Deng. The confluence of such factors have historically been a bad omen.

This does not mean that the US should start a war with China. It means the US should pivot its focus to Asia and continue the policy of containment, which is a maintenance of the peaceful status quo through a combination of sticks and carrots. It means the US should be aware that there is a rival there who may start a war on their own terms and on their own schedule when they believe they are capable of defeating the US.

[topkai22]

Since WWII Tibet (annexed) Korea (at invitation of the North Korean government, but invaded South Korea) India USSR Vietnam

China has been fairly quiet and well behaved since 1980, but it is current quite publicly talking forcefully reintegrating Taiwan and has had continuous naval disputes in the South China Sea.

If we are talking about colonialism, “China” is a land empire that has absolutely dominated its neighbors and often conquered them. Making an apples to apples comparison to European colonialism isn’t very useful and I don’t pretend to know details, but historical China has plenty of expansionist and domineering episodes.

[throw__away7391]

> Which countries has China invaded in the past few decades?

Well, all of their neighbors for starters.

If we include sending warships to violate maritime sovereignty under that definition, we can add dozens more in Asia and South America.

[incahoots]

What difference does its government make when you purposely employ collective punishment via embargo?

For a country that prides itself as “democracy driven and human rights protector” it sure seems just as hostile as the supposed acting government.

[eZpZpi]

Current position is easily explained; most active US voters are >50 yo and elect 50+ year old pols.

All of those 50+ year olds were weened on “Cuba bad.”

Leadership is mostly ossified and low effort adults who rarely update their opinion; they just engage in their routine, recite the spoken pageantry, idle about like brain dead tourists of reality and die down the road.

Murican Civic Life has taken hold of the same biology religion stumbled upon. Time to “blink” and accept physical statistics just keeps enough stuff on shelves the majority don’t riot and mv /human/story/mode /dev/null

[bobthepanda]

Also Florida is a large swing state, and the Cubans who have fled there are the ones who hate the current government.