Another Stripe for the Anti-Cuban Tiger

The U.S. Congress is getting worse. From the outset, the national public’s opinion of it is bad. In each of the surveys conducted in the country, the level of approval on the work they do is on the floor. If the presidential candidates are in bad shape, congresspeople are far worse.

It seems, as reflected in the surveys, that members of Congress cause disgust instead of admiration. The citizens of this country feel repugnance for these politicians who go to Washington to please corporations and forget about the people — so much so that those characters as a whole only have a 9 percent approval rating in the polls, while 11 percent of those same citizens accept polygamy as morally acceptable. Not only that, but 30 percent approve of pornography. This means that more Americans approve of pornography and polygamy than of their congressional representatives. But here’s even more: Eleven percent approve of communism, 23 percent approve of the despicable bankers who have plunged the country into economic chaos and even 16 percent are not displeased with British Petroleum for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. When he had to resign due to the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon had an approval rating of 23 percent.

Ignorance and mediocrity prevail in both houses of Congress. Some congressmen say that if a blank map of the United States is put in front of them, they would be able to locate St. Louis, California, but if they are taken out of their comfort zone, they are more lost than a rooster in Paris. The bad thing is not that they are ignorant, but that they believe the complete opposite. They are ignorant, but not fools. They are insects. You have to see the skills they have that enable them to raise funds for their campaigns. In that sense they are “the candle.” They know how to move among the voters who go to the polls … so that they can go to Washington and vote there, sometimes without even reading the draft that is put in front of them. Vote for me today, and tomorrow I’ll vote for you.

Cubans who live here have a broad representation of ignorance in the capital. We have six, but as we say in Cuba, “We were few and Catana was born.” We are now going to have seven, for the Texas Republican primaries elected Ted Cruz, the son of an immigrant Cuban, to run for the Senate. He is the candidate for the Republican Party, which ensures the seat because candidates of that party have been guaranteed the bench for over 20 years.

Anyone can ask themselves who this gentleman who, until recently, nobody knew of outside the borders of the state of Texas is. Well, Mr. Cruz is the son of Rafael Cruz, a Cuban who immigrated to America in 1957, and Darragh Eleanor, an American of Irish descent who was born in Delaware.

Cruz is 42-years-old and a Harvard Law School graduate who until recently served as Attorney General of Texas. He was the first Latino to hold that position in that state and has occupied it for the longest time, as well as being the youngest attorney general this country has had.

Cruz was elected against the will of the most powerful representatives from the Republican Party of Texas. It was done only with the thrust of the tea party, of which he is a distinguished member. The man could not be more conservative and unreceptive.

So with the arrival of Mr. Cruz to the Senate of the United States, the anti-Cuban tiger in Congress will have one more stripe next year. I imagine that this man will soon be embracing the heirs of Dictator Fulgencio Batista on Capitol Hill. The hate toward Cuba will unite them in a fraternal embrace. With the arrival of Mr. Cruz, the black hole the anti-Cubans have created in Congress will acquire newer and wider dimensions.