Every day it seems like Florida and the U.S. is infringing on my freedoms of expression, to vote, association, political affiliation, medical choices. Governor DeSantis keeps signing these authoritarian laws and I’m hardly hearing a peep from my local news outlets. Where the heck are the GOP? Where are the Dem Governor candidates? Why on earth is Miami Hispanic radio ok with these power grabs? In Miami, if you disagree with a certain segment of the folk there, they call you a Communist. I always retort to that it’s not the Communism that bothers me. It’s the authoritarian and Totalitarianism that I object to. I really don’t understand why Miami isn’t in full revolt against Ron DeSantis. He’s on a roll to control every aspect of Florida and the Miami GOP is partially taken over by the Proud Boys. I don’t understand why I’m not seeing Val Demings snagging interviews with every reporter she can find talking down De Santis’ power trip with Rubio’s acquiescence. Rick Scott isn’t saying diddly either. Nikki Fried? She’s a no show, too. She’s running for Florida Governor, but you wouldn’t know that from her media presence.
I have no use for Marco Rubio as a Senator. Every time he speaks he talks of his parents having to flee Castro. He tells compelling stories of how corrupt Castro’s Cuba was and still is. He decries communism and socialism. Rubio doesn’t have the same scorn for authoritarianism or totalitarianism in Cuba and Venezuela or the U.S. for that matter. He has no scorn for power grabbing Governor DeSantis. Rubio says nothing about DeSantis private police force. Nothing about how DeSantis is infringing the freedom of his constituents. Rubio has no words calling for the freedom for women, children, LGBTQ+ anyone who isn’t on board with the radical right GOP. No concerns about the SCOTUS over reach snapping away our 14th Amendment Rights. His good standing with the GOP depends upon it.
Marco Rubio has not called out the fact that the Miami/Dade GOP organization has multiple Proud Boys on their executive committee. Here’s his sorry excuse for a quote when asked if he’s ok with Proud Boys partially taking over the Miami GOP:
“Well, when you ask me about the Communists and Socialists that are part of the local Democratic party, then we can talk about members of the Republican party.”
Rubio calls out the Socialists and Communists, but gives the Authoritarians and Totalitarians a pass. Rubio conflates Socialism with Totalitarianism to our detriment.
Rubio alludes to Bernie Sanders and AOC being an ominous threat to the U.S. but anti-Semitic, misogynist, racist Proud Boys being on the Miami GOP Executive Committee is not?
Paint me Disgusted.
Authoritarianism is the opposite of freedom.
Totalitarianism is the opposite of freedom.
Marco Rubio is treating politics like it is a game.
Unfortunately, it has become a game.
A game where people put ideology over Country.
A game where party is more important than our Country.
A reality game where human rights are only allotted to some people.
A reality game with deadly consequences for marginalized people.
A deadly reality game where our high court just gutted our 14th Amendment Rights.
The GOP is going to rue the day SCOTUS gutted our 14th Amendment Rights.
They’ve paved the path toward Capitalist Totalitarianism, and they think they want this.
Every conversation I have with Venezuelan or Cuban immigrants I make a big distinction between social policy (capitalism, socialism, communism, mixed economies) and authoritarianism. The current immigrants from these countries are fleeing over policing, totalitarian policies that target dissenters has little to do with capitalist/communist spectrum. I have spoken with a Venezuelan Asylum grantee who scoffed at the asylum needs of the people from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Like Central America’s need to live in a violence/authoritarian free world is unworthy of U.S. freedoms. I have had Venezuelans tell me I don’t know what freedom means. I have had Cuban Americans tell me the U.S. needs a strongman leader. I quipped back, “Just like Castro?”
At least that stopped them for a moment of thought.
I follow up with the observation that Vladimir Putin took Russia’s borderline mixed economy from authoritarianism back to totalitarianism within two weeks from February 24th, 2022 to March 10th, 2022.
That stops people for a few more moments of thought.
The people I know who are in South Florida from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Brazil, Ukraine, Honduras…. none of them are afraid of social spending. They all fear authoritarians. They all fear pissing off some politician who can do them and their families egregious harm.
What irks me the most is when I see a Cuban American like Marco Rubio support a totalitarian like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. He’s clueless that capitalists can be totalitarians. Marco Rubio’s parents made sure he knew what totalitarianism is. They failed to teach him it can happen here. He thinks he knows what Socialism or Communism is and is not. He does not appear to understand that both the U.S. and Russia are mixed economies. He’s frightfully in denial that the U.S. mixed economy can become authoritarian. He’s oblivious to the idea that the majority of Americans don’t want to live in a authoritarian theocracy. I surely do not want to live in a totalitarian theocracy where people like DeSantis decides who is and who is not going to experience freedom. Or worse, I don’t want people like DeSantis redefining what freedom is.
I cannot equate being asked to wear a face mask indoors or in crowded public places for the greater good of all with forcing a 10 year old girl to carry a pregnancy to term. I will not conflate an annoyance with a life changing event.
Rubio’s parents, like mine, conflated Totalitarianism with Socialism and Communism, but not Capitalism. Like one comes with the other like bread, peanut butter and jelly, when it’s more like peanut butter and celery; an option that doesn’t have to be selected. My parents and teachers did the same thing. I was taught Communism and totalitarianism is one and the same, meaning bad. I was also taught making life easier for everyone is Godly, just don’t spend tax dollars to do it….but Social Security and Medicare is good, Medicaid was bad (….see the racism there?) I finally convinced my parents that using tax dollars to heal the sick, build homes for the unhoused is a bonus, not a detriment to our freedoms. Social spending gives more people freedom to be all they can be and improves our economy by baking a bigger economic pie.
Rubio’s parents told him that when people get free stuff from the government they will cheerfully trade away their freedoms for the free stuff. That’s the same fallacy I was taught. We all need to reject this fallacy. Marco Rubio conflates Cuba with Norway. The fact that the U.S. is not awash in newly arrived Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or Finnish immigrants is lost on him. These countries did select to be Social Democracies (mixed economies), something Rubio cannot comprehend. People are not fleeing the Social Democracies of the Arctic European nations. Their economies are healthy. Nordic people are happy. The war between Russia and Ukraine is stressing the economy like it is everywhere, but I see this as the true cost of freedom. We have to support Ukraine or the world will lose their freedom everywhere.
Compare Nicaragua, Guatamala, many of the Central American countries and you see a serious lack of freedom in these authoritarian capitalist regimes. Even George W. gets it. Marco Rubio does not see the similarities in how the governments of Cuba and Nicaragua function by over policing and oppressing people these governments see as dissenters. Central American economies are ailing with severely limited options for their people. It is why many are leaving this part of the world.
I have no use for Marco Rubio as a Florida Senator because he does not stand up for my rights. He doesn’t stand up for my daughter’s rights. He doesn’t even stand up for his own rights. He’s ok with Governor DeSantis’ laws that unlawfully restrain free speech, freedom of association, disallows Florida’s explicit right to privacy in our Florida State Constitution. Rubio puts his personal money interests over his constituents. Rubio doesn’t see business as needing any regulation. He all but denies climate change. Rubio puts the GOP party over the betterment of our country. What’s worse, he actually believes his own ideology.