Ron Paul at the Spanish Debate
Due to the inaccessibility to English speakers of the Univision debate in Spanish, there are a lot of lies, half-truths, and misreporting about what actually went on there.
I translated the debate to clear up any confusion. As you will see, Ron Paul was cheered loudly for the most part especially regarding his opposition to a mandatory ID card, his opposition to the war, and when he spoke about the importance of the U.S. Constitution. Strangely, he was booed when he advocated normalizing trade and foreign relations with Cuba and Venezuela. As I soon found out, this is because there is a strong hatred among Cuban-Americans for Castro. However, as Ron Paul explained his position further, some began to clap. The rest of the candidates received polite applause after most responses, but none was cheered as loudly as Ron Paul.
Of course, Ron Paul’s advocacy for restoring trade and positive diplomatic relationships with Cuba and Venezuela was not well-received in Miami. In Los Angeles, or a different location, the response to Ron Paul’s argument would have been mostly positive because the logic would not have been clouded by personal anti-Castro resentment.
I can imagine Ron Paul regrets not mentioning that the point of restoring trade and positive relations is not to please Castro, but instead to stop punishing Americans who want to trade, and to stop punishing Cubans who want to trade for the actions of their dictator. Ron Paul did mention that we talked to Khrushchev and others during the Cold War. In an unrelated question Ron Paul even mentioned how we restored relations with Vietnam, to which everyone cheered. This inconsistency in the response of the audience (negative for improved relations with Cuba and positive for improved relations with Vietnam) is very telling; it shows that anti-Cuban sentiment is a rather automatic and deeply-ingrained emotional response, and that while restoring diplomatic relations with Vietnam instead of imposing sanctions is good, doing the same with Cuba (however logical) is unacceptable.
The other Republican candidates demonized Castro, and Giuliani took a shot at Ron Paul by implying he was weak (to which he received a mixed audience response). Although the moderators didn’t grant Ron Paul a rebuttal, Ron Paul comes out on top, and here is why: While Ron Paul is advocating trade and diplomacy, the other Republicans are advertising just how isolationist they are. Quite ironic, since they inaccurately like to call Ron Paul an isolationist.
Ron Paul is willing to talk and trade with all countries. If anyone is an isolationist, it is Giuliani, Romney, and the other Republicans AND Democrats who would not even talk to Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and North Korea. Most of the time they oppose trade with China, Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Congo and Lebanon. Perhaps McCain can think twice before he ever calls Ron Paul an isolationist again - it is especially hypocritical of McCain since he tried to get Iran kicked off the FIFA World Cup in Germany (and failed).
Univision GOP Debate: Ron Paul Highlights with English translation (English Subtitles)
*Note: Subtitles are English translations of what the interpreters said in Spanish (that is, what the audience heard in Spanish, and not necessarily a verbatim transcript).
Here is a full transcript of the entire debate
**Youtube has removed the video due to possible copyright infringement issues. If there is enough demand, we may look for a work-around; however, we recommend visiting univision.com instead.
Comment by JIVEWIRE | December 10th, 2007
Thank you for taking the time to clarify. Excellent post, and you are right- as a non-cuban Latino, we don’t have the same emotional response to Castro and the embargo. In general, Latinos love peace and a non-intrusive government. Many Latinos have lived under the more openly corrupt governments in Latin America and welcome the principles of smaller government and freedom, and love what America stands for- which is not the neocon perversion of democracy.
War, big government, infringing on privacy, and the destruction of the constitution in the name of security may pacify the frightened SHEEPLE, but true Americans, white, black, brown, see through the propaganda and support a true hero in Dr. Ron Paul!
Comment by Kevin | December 13th, 2007
Most people that support Ron Paul have looked beyond the surface issues, those meant to scare and divide Americans. For a good understanding of how the United States government broght chaos to Cuba (just like Vietnam and Iraq), and brought their man, a known communist, Castro, to power, read Earl Smith’s “The Fourth Floor”, written in 1962. He was the United States ambassador to Cuba at the time.