The Face of Real Elections

The Face of Real Elections / Rosa Maria Rodriguez Torrado
Rosa Maria Rodriguez Torrado, Translator: Unstated

The quadrennial U.S. elections were held on Tuesday, November 6 with the
victory of Barack Obama, the first black president in the history of the
United States, who was re-elected for another presidential term. I do
not like to talk about race or to note differences between people, but
like some international media, it's worth nothing that "Obama defeated
for the second time a white candidate" in a system that leftist
propaganda usually noted as markedly racist.

Also in this election, it is notable that the triumph was against a
billionaire opponent, destroying the thesis of the Cuban leaders and
their acolytes in the world, holding that only the very rich —
multimillionaires — can aspire to the presidency of that country. I
remember in a reflection of Fidel Castro in 2008, he highlighted doubts
that the lawyer and former senator from the state of Illinois would be
elected, because he had a personal fortune of just over a million dollars.

The attachment to democratic values and practices is not exactly a
virtue nor endorsed by the despotic and dictatorial regimes like Cuba.
Here there are no elections. Our society is denied the excitement and
pluralistic rivalry inherent in the fair struggle for obtaining public
office, from which the problems of their constituents can be solved in
"real, not nominal" ways.

The equality of electoral opportunities in Cuba election is a fallacy,
because only one-party adherents and/or their members, can aspire to be
candidates. There is also a 'Nominations Committee' — State controlled,
of course — which by law, provides 50% of the delegates from the base.
Where is the equal treatment between persons advocating equality,
regardless of social class, gender, race or other circumstances? All
this is but demagoguery.

They spend time openly criticizing the American system on the one hand,
and on the other, asking them to invest in the ruined Cuban economy and
send tourists to our country. They try to mask their inadequacies
diverting the news focus and information toward U.S. affairs.

But the most objectionable, is systematically using evils already
overcome in that country as if they were happening in the present, which
is equivalent to lying.

Why don't we worry about and take care of our problems? They also
criticizes the media in that country, but there both political aspirants
as well as ordinary citizens have full access to the mass media organs,
in contrast to the security of "closed doors" under ours.

The United States is the best example that democracy is perfectible, as
they have journeyed — as the undisputed model of freedom –from
segregationist situations and practices in the past, to elect an African
American for president, and four years later, to ratify him.

The attitudes and actions speak better and louder than the spokesmen of
the Cuban dictatorship and its dwindling number of fans worldwide.

November 15 2012

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