ROMNEY WORDSWORTH - Fidel Castro’s 57 year reign of terror over the island nation of Cuba came to an end this week as the dictator finally succumbed to old age at 90 years old. It is believed that the specific cause of death was from infection stemming from Castro’s refusal to use a colostomy bag, and the failure of the fabulous Cuban health system to come up with a more dignified treatment for the aging ruler. Castro came to power in 1959, and transformed Cuba from a one party state under Fulgencio Batista that respected private property rights and allowed Cubans to have prosperity, to a Cuba under a brutal communist party state that stripped Cubans of private property and kept Cubans in desperate poverty.
Castro was the last man to die from a whole class of Great Dictators of the 20th century who ruled from 1959 onward: Joseph Stalin, Nikita Kruschev, and Leonid Breshnev of the Soviet Union, Nicolai Ceaucescu of Romania, Josip Tito of Yugoslavia, Erich Honecker of East Germany, Mao Tse Tung and Deng Chow Ping of China, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Kim Jong Il of North Korea, and Francisco Franco of Spain. Other than Francisco Franco, all these dictators were communists, and together they collectively killed a half a billion people.
Castro was exceedingly lucky to have come to power just as Dwight D. Eisenhower was leaving office and the incompetent John F. Kennedy entered the White House. Kennedy was routinely outmaneuvered by Castro and the Soviet Union in foreign policy. Even though Kennedy had Eisenhower, the man who was the architect of the amphibious invasion of Normandy at his disposal, Kennedy instead used the CIA to launch a half assed, poorly planned invasion at the Bay of Pigs, which ended in disaster and ignominy for the United States, and sealed the doom for generations of Cubans to remain under hellish communist rule.
Castro’s signature accomplishment was in bringing the planet Earth the closest it has ever been to nuclear Armageddon, by enthusiastically agreeing to allow the Soviet Union to use Cuba as a nuclear missile launching site.
Castro also tried to export communism to Angola, which failed; to Nicaragua, which also failed due to the actions of Ronald Reagan; to the island of Grenada, which also failed due to the timely invasion of Ronald Reagan; and to Venezuela, which succeeded so well under Castro’s late protégé, Hugo Chavez, that the citizens of the oil rich nation are at this very writing hunting pigeons, cats and dogs in the streets to eat, while the country under communist rule enjoys a 1,600% inflation rate of its currency, and is expected to economically collapse any minute now.
Castro’s second greatest accomplishment was to make communism “cool” to the American Hollywood elite, and leftist university professors. Sales of Che Guevera T-shirts soared under Castro’s rule, becoming Cuba’s number one contribution to the world economy.
Spontaneous celebrations by Cuban-Americans broke out in Miami at the news of Castro’s death.
Eulogies by the leaders of Western Democracies were nauseatingly fawning, with the exception of Donald J. Trump, who accurately summarized Castro:
“Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades,” Trump said in a statement issued a couple of hours after his tweet.
“Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.”
The President-elect added, “Though the tragedies, deaths and pain caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased, our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty. I join the many Cuban Americans who supported me so greatly in the presidential campaign, including the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association that endorsed me, with the hope of one day soon seeing a free Cuba.”
Compare Trump’s statement with the eulogy of pretty boy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada:
“It was with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest-serving president. Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation. While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for ‘el Comandante.’”
For a supposed leader of a Western Democracy, Trudeau’s eulogy is revisionist history at its worst, and therefore shameful. But it is instructive for why the Left, and Socialism, is being rejected everywhere by voters in the West. Leftists like Trudeau and the other leaders wrecking Western Europe have entirely too much sympathy for, and too much in common ideologically with, a brutal monster like Castro. In the end, they are all fellow travelers in Communism, From Merkel, who grew up as a communist cadre in East Germany, to Hillary Clinton, who grew up an acolyte of Saul Alinsky.
Castro is survived by his brother Raul Castro, who is expected to hold on to power for a few months to a few years before he too dies of old age. Castro is also survived by the Cuban communist party and the nation of Cuba, which still has not recovered prosperity since Castro seized power; a lucky few of whom are still driving cars that were made before 1959.
Those wishing to send flowers to the Castro family are instead urged to donate the money to the Jill Stein Green Party election recount campaign.