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September 14, 2007
Republicans, Freedom, and Cuba
Here's an excellent letter to the editor in today's WSJ:
Your article "In Little Havana, Cuba Si, Obama No" (Politics & Economics, Sept. 10) captures the generational conflict between older Cuban-Americans who oppose any change in U.S. policy toward Cuba and younger Cuban-Americans who have a more realistic approach. The demographics are in favor of those Cuban-Americans who seek a new Cuba policy that is more consistent with American values of freedom and openness.
It's good that Barack Obama gets it. However, as a Cuban-American and a Republican, I would like to see my party align itself with the younger generation of Cuban-Americans. As the Republican Party becomes increasingly associated with perceived anti-immigrant policies and an outmoded U.S. policy toward Cuba, the party will lose the Cuban-American vote. That could easily tip the electoral calculus in 2008 and 2012 in favor of the Democrats. Wake up Republicans, it's not just the liberals who want to see a different approach to Cuba.
Ignacio Sosa
Principal, OneWorld Investments LP, Boston