Fidel Castro: Political Pundit?
October 12th 2008 22:06
In an election cycle such as this one, where the chips are all on the table and it is open for anyone to take a swipe at, one of the by-products of extensive media coverage is to become familiar with the pundits who tell you what to think about what just happened. It is a factor of campaign coverage and you need to understand it because if you don’t understand their background and their motivations then you can’t separate the fact from the spin. If you didn’t know Bill Kristol’s father was one of the pioneers of the neoconservative movement and Bill himself is the editor of a conservative publication, you might take his railing against Obama at face value. Similarly, if you didn’t know that Bill Maher was a raging liberal, further left than Karl Marx, you wouldn’t know that his ramblings about John McCain and Sarah Palin were incredibly exaggerated and at times delusional. In short, it is important to know the pundits and not just listen to them. If you know them, you know why they are saying what they are saying. And once you know that, you are halfway to halfway cutting through the spin. What you need to know now is that there is a new pundit you might not have seen in awhile, although it seems like he has been around forever. He isn’t based in the United States, although he has a very good understanding of the history of American international relations. He is, suffice it to say, considerably left of centre in terms of his politics. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the newest pundit in the U.S. Presidential Election of 2008: Fidel Castro.
Fidel has been fairly quiet in recent times; particularly since he gave up running the country and let his brother Raul take over. There has been speculation that he has been dead all along, that he is secretly still pulling the strings or that he may be alive and well sitting on a beach somewhere enjoying his first time off in a few decades. No one really knew though, so it was good at least to hear from him in the respect that we finally knew that he must have been down on the beach twiddling his thumbs and wondering how he could still poke America with a stick now that he wasn’t the leader of Cuba anymore. His decision, in the end, was to attack one of the institutions the Americans hold so dearly and attach to it an aura of negativity. Yes, Fidel Castro said that millions of Americans could not imagine Barack Obama winning the election and moving into the White House, and his theory is proven because why? Because the name of the Executive Mansion is the ‘WHITE’ House. Now we all know that I love a good pun. In fact, it is my overuse of puns in day to day life that may have put the final nail in the coffin for what was once the height of humour. But suggesting that using the name ‘White House’ is somehow proof of the inherent racism of the American people is beyond a pun: it is pure Fidel pot-stirring.
Fidel went on to say that he was surprised Obama hadn’t been assassinated yet, and while that may feed into some of the paranoia Fidel himself feels about the number of plans the Americans had to kill him, he does have a point. A sense of surprise, or inevitability, about that outcome is present amongst the population at large. It may have something to do with low expectations and contemporary depictions of ‘redneck’ America, but Fidel isn’t the only one that thinks this is a distinct possibility. That is one of the benefits of having a crackpot Communist dictator as a political pundit: he can say a lot that sounds completely mental. But he can also say the outrageous things that people in the mainstream can’t, but that people outside the mainstream were all thinking already. He probably wants to give Obama a few tips. If anyone knows how to avoid a well-planned conspiracy, it’s Fidel. And it is well timed too. Just the other day civil rights icon John Lewis accused McCain of stoking the fires of racial hatred against Obama. This is the same John Lewis that McCain listed as one of his personal heroes at the Saddleback Forum a few months ago now. Whether it is true or not is irrelevant. Most of the time, in Presidential politics, it isn’t what you mean that counts: it’s what other people think you mean.
Of course, Castro took a swipe at McCain/Palin as well. He mocked McCain’s low grades at the Naval Academy and said Palin knew nothing about… well, anything really. It was a bit of a weak swipe for someone as experienced as Fidel. He has been getting under the skin of American politicians for half a century. His attacks on McCain and Palin just lacked that oomph that could have really got John angry. Better luck next time Fidel. And there will be a next time. You see, Fidel is a compulsive irritant. Until he dies, he will be sticking the barbs into American politicians, trying to get a reaction and trying to get the big brother of the Western Hemisphere to bite back. So he will continue to be our favourite whack-job political pundit from across the water. Most of the time he will be provocative for the sake of being provocative. Other times though, if you listen hard enough, he may just be right.
Fidel has been fairly quiet in recent times; particularly since he gave up running the country and let his brother Raul take over. There has been speculation that he has been dead all along, that he is secretly still pulling the strings or that he may be alive and well sitting on a beach somewhere enjoying his first time off in a few decades. No one really knew though, so it was good at least to hear from him in the respect that we finally knew that he must have been down on the beach twiddling his thumbs and wondering how he could still poke America with a stick now that he wasn’t the leader of Cuba anymore. His decision, in the end, was to attack one of the institutions the Americans hold so dearly and attach to it an aura of negativity. Yes, Fidel Castro said that millions of Americans could not imagine Barack Obama winning the election and moving into the White House, and his theory is proven because why? Because the name of the Executive Mansion is the ‘WHITE’ House. Now we all know that I love a good pun. In fact, it is my overuse of puns in day to day life that may have put the final nail in the coffin for what was once the height of humour. But suggesting that using the name ‘White House’ is somehow proof of the inherent racism of the American people is beyond a pun: it is pure Fidel pot-stirring.
Fidel went on to say that he was surprised Obama hadn’t been assassinated yet, and while that may feed into some of the paranoia Fidel himself feels about the number of plans the Americans had to kill him, he does have a point. A sense of surprise, or inevitability, about that outcome is present amongst the population at large. It may have something to do with low expectations and contemporary depictions of ‘redneck’ America, but Fidel isn’t the only one that thinks this is a distinct possibility. That is one of the benefits of having a crackpot Communist dictator as a political pundit: he can say a lot that sounds completely mental. But he can also say the outrageous things that people in the mainstream can’t, but that people outside the mainstream were all thinking already. He probably wants to give Obama a few tips. If anyone knows how to avoid a well-planned conspiracy, it’s Fidel. And it is well timed too. Just the other day civil rights icon John Lewis accused McCain of stoking the fires of racial hatred against Obama. This is the same John Lewis that McCain listed as one of his personal heroes at the Saddleback Forum a few months ago now. Whether it is true or not is irrelevant. Most of the time, in Presidential politics, it isn’t what you mean that counts: it’s what other people think you mean.
Of course, Castro took a swipe at McCain/Palin as well. He mocked McCain’s low grades at the Naval Academy and said Palin knew nothing about… well, anything really. It was a bit of a weak swipe for someone as experienced as Fidel. He has been getting under the skin of American politicians for half a century. His attacks on McCain and Palin just lacked that oomph that could have really got John angry. Better luck next time Fidel. And there will be a next time. You see, Fidel is a compulsive irritant. Until he dies, he will be sticking the barbs into American politicians, trying to get a reaction and trying to get the big brother of the Western Hemisphere to bite back. So he will continue to be our favourite whack-job political pundit from across the water. Most of the time he will be provocative for the sake of being provocative. Other times though, if you listen hard enough, he may just be right.
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