I don’t pretend to be a political expert, but it
occurs to me that Marco Rubio took himself out of the presidential sweepstakes
when he angrily attacked President Obama for his decision to normalize relations
with Cuba. And those Republicans who fulminate against the Administration for
the decision to support the Congressional report on Enhanced Interrogation
Techniques (read torture) may effectively brand their party the Party of Hawks
and seal their defeat in 2016.
Now, I am an unabashed conservative, one who instinctively
opposes most of the economic tendencies of President Obama. I am convinced that
he is no friend of business, and the more successful a business, the less
likely it will find favor at the White House. But on Cuba and on foreign
policy, the President, it seems to me, is on the right side of history – and of
the American electorate.
The hawkish wing of the Republican Party, which is in
control of their party, argues for a “more muscular” foreign policy, especially
in the Middle East, and they have enough supporters to persuade them that their
position is popular. Dick Cheney has famously supported torture, and Marco
Rubio has a position paper in today’s Journal
attacking the thawing of relations with Cuba. Both receive standing ovations
from what they see as their base.
They should be careful. If they are successful in derailing the
normalization of relations with Cuba and in promoting American boots on the
ground in the Middle East, they will be setting up a Democratic landslide in
2016. Most Americans are war-weary, and the reaction of most of my friends on
Cuba is “about time.” Of course, I could
be wrong, and Americans could be spoiling for a fight. Time will tell.
