In the wake of New York City electing itself a real live communist for mayor earlier this month, Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) introduced a non-binding resolution to Congress this past week called “Denouncing the horrors of socialism.” That means it doesn’t create any sort of real law — it’s largely symbolic, with the intention of affirming “that the United States rejects socialism and opposes the implementation of socialist policies that threaten the freedoms and prosperity that define our nation.”
Voting in favor of it should have been a no-brainer. It was for Republicans, at least: 199 voted in favor of it, with zero voting against. For Democrats, on the other hand, only 86 managed to find it within themselves to denounce the very things the U.S. stands against, while 98 voted against and two voted present, and 47 didn’t vote at all. You can’t make this stuff up.
For some of the Republicans, the vote was personal. They lived the realities of it.
Salazar, for example, grew up in Florida, the daughter of Cuban exiles who fled Fidel Castro’s reign of terror. “This is a moral vote against an ideology that has destroyed millions and millions of families,” she said during her remarks. “Unfortunately, socialism and Marxism crushes the human soul. And it’s not just my community in Miami. It’s the rest of the hemisphere and the rest of the world.”
Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) also spoke from experience. “As a Korean-American who grew up in the aftermath of the Korean war, I have witnessed the horrors of socialism firsthand,” she said. “… Now more than ever, as socialist ideas gain traction here at home, and as our nation’s largest city and financial capital has elected, not just a socialist but a communist, as mayor, we must firmly demand our capitalist free market system which empowers Americans of all backgrounds to achieve freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.”
Apparently, for some of the “nays,” it was personal as well. But in a different way.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was one of the most vocal against it, and Salazar wasn’t afraid to point out why.
If there is someone who has seen the horrors of socialism up close within the Democratic Party in the House, it is the honorable Congresswoman Maxine Waters. And I would love for you to support this resolution specifically, because Madam Waters, for decades, you traveled to Cuba dozens of times to visit Fidel Castro personally, whom you considered your friend. Congresswoman Waters was in Havana and she saw the destruction of biblical proportions that Castro caused on that island who, at the time in 1960, had the highest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere.
At that time, Madam Waters knew that thousands and thousands of Cubans were escaping on a raft, exposing their lives and their children’s to be eaten by the sharks. She knew that Afro-Cubans were being beaten on the streets of Havana, discriminated against, uh, by Fidel Castro, Mr. Speaker. And for that reason, I am bringing up all these facts, because Madam Waters knew that the Cuban jails were full of political prisoners and the Cubans did not have the same privileges that we are having right now to speak freely. At that time, Madam Waters never raised her voice to denounce the horrors of socialism, Mr. Speaker.
Hellbound and Down 