History, Political Commentary

Twenty Years After The Fall

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..of the tyrant. Michael Totten has an interesting photoessay of a visit to Romania.

I’ve always wondered what democrats who grew up in communist countries thought of communists who grew up in democratic countries. Hardly anyone in the West ever voted with their feet, so to speak, by moving to a communist country, but communist dictatorships created millions of refugees who fled their homelands for Western democracies. East Germans were willing to risk being shot to make a run over the wall, Cubans are still willing to risk drowning to reach Florida, yet once in a while I still meet Westerners who have a warm spot in their hearts for regimes like Castro’s.

“What do you think,” I asked her, “of people in the West who think communism is a good idea but haven’t actually experienced it? There are quite a few people who admire the system in Cuba. You know the types I mean. The people who wear Che Guevara t-shirts.”

“Ah, yes,” she said. “They are ridiculous. But somehow I can understand them. Let’s take the example of France. In France they were all socialists when they were young. Sartre was a close friend of Castro’s. Gerard Depardieu was a close friend of Castro’s. They believed in this ideal, but after they saw what Stalin did they couldn’t look to the Soviet Union. So they turned their hopes to Cuba. Then they saw what Castro did. The only one who still seemed to live up to the ideal was Che Guevara. So they turned to Che Guevara. I understand them. They were wrong their entire lives, and it is difficult to admit this.”

And they are wrong still.

Hit his tip jar.

3 thoughts on “Twenty Years After The Fall”

  1. Che Guevara seems ideal for idolatry since he’s dead and can’t fall off the pedestal.

  2. Whenever I see someone wearing a Che shirt or having a Che poster in their office, I wonder if they’re really that ignorant about what Che did or if they’re aspiring political murderers, too.

  3. The reason that Communists are still acceptable in America is that the Democrat Party has actively sought out their support and glorified them. The Democrats, until they condemn people like George Galloway and MoveOn/ANSWER, should be treated as if they were the mass murderers with whom they march.

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