The Strange Romance of Leftists and Fidel Castro

Summary

---

Sometime in the 1950s, Fidel Castro earned a free pass from moral responsibility that endures to this day. Decades ago, he cut a romantic figure as an embattled revolutionary in the Cuban mountains, and that has been enough to keep him forever in the esteem of a slice of Hollywood celebrities, Democratic congressmen and the American left.

As Castro's health fails - creating hopes that it is at least the beginning of the end of his rule - the world contemplates the exit of a man who has proven that it is possible to run a country like a military camp and still be beloved by self-styled liberals and progressives. The same people who decry a budding tyranny in the U.S. because the government now enjoys enhanced surveillance powers against terrorism suspects, celebrate and yuk it up with a ruler who jails anyone who disagrees with him.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

The Strange Romance of Leftists and Fidel Castro

Castro has long lived off his cachet as a revolutionary guerrilla. For much of the left, revolution has become less an idea than an image and a brand - a pistol,...

See the full content of this document

---