A Fake Exile: Marco Rubio

   I've missed a few opportunities to comment on a few things over the last few weeks due to a busier than usual schedule.  But something that I feel like I have to write about is the silliness that Marco Rubio has been in the news for.

   First, it interests me because in some technical way he is supposed to be one of my two representatives in the US Senate.  Second, my intense interest in Cuba and desire to have my country wake up and respect Cuba as an equal nation in this world we live in.

   I am here, literally, because my father came to this country as a child along with his family because my grandfather was looking for a better life.  No, they didn't leave Cuba after the revolution led by Fidel Castro on the behalf of the Cuban people.  They came to this country in 1957 during the Batista dictatorship which was supported by Washington.  Along with Washington's support, Batista enjoyed a warm and personally lucrative relationship with the American mafia, which brought its crime and many vices to the homeland of my father.  Also, he was OK with the fact that the American corporations were exploiting the people of Cuba thanks to a neo-colonial society which was set up to serve the interests of the United States after so much Cuban blood was shed as the people fought for their independence from Spain.  Batista personally fled the island to save his neck with money he robbed from the Cuban people he ruled over until he could hold onto power no longer.

   You see Marco Rubio's family shares a certain similar history with mine.  We recently learned that his parents too decided to leave their homeland to seek a better life in the United States, in 1956 just a year before mine made the trip.  The difference is his story up until now has been that they left to escape Castro and communism.  He failed to mention that they left before the triumph of the revolution.  Why the embellishment of his biography that he now denies as being such?  The answer is simple.  The twisted politics of Florida makes a hero out of anyone of Cuban descent who speaks badly about Castro and the Cuban revolution.  So the role of an "exile" is the one Marco Rubio decided to play.

   By milking this cash cow of anti-Cuban/ anti-Castro politics, he has managed to reach one of the highest levels of power in the US political system and there is even talk of this "young star" being the possible vice-presidential candidate in the 2012 election.  But this ignorant man failed to realize that at that level of the political game his background would be scrutinized in ways that he never worried about in Florida state politics.
  
   But now we learn that Marco is a fake exile.  "We do have a tendency in modern politics to exaggerate things".  This most recent statement by Rubio might be the most honest thing that has come through his lips lately.

Embellish: Make a statement or story more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, especially ones that are not true.

Exagerate: Represent something as being larger, greater, better, or worse than it really is.

   Marco Rubio has repeatedly denied embellishing his family history but admits that exaggerations by politicians occur.  However he tries to spin his way out of the web of false history he has woven doesn't change the fact that this less than slick politician found it necessary to change his biography on his website, only after being outed as a liar.  He has chosen to blame the false history on the "stories" handed down by his family as if this were some sort of legend handed down many generations when it is only the story of his parents.

   This Senator Rubio fancied up his family history for no other reason than to gain himself a little street cred, Calle 8 style.  He chose to stoop to a lower level to appeal to the group of extremists in Miami who have a record of hate including trying to make Cubans suffer, even to the point of committing and supporting terrorism.  All of this for personal political gains.

   To me, Marco Rubio is the embodiment of a pathetic and decrepit politician.  He, along with all of the others who are the same, need to be forcefully retired by the public that they deceive and fail to represent with dignity.  Hopefully whatever investigations may be looking into his possible involvement in illegal activities are fruitful and the state of Florida doesn't have to wait all six years for a new Senator.

   As serious as an issue that lying politicians is, I do thank Marco Rubio for providing me with a bit of comic relief over the past few days.