cuba 2.0, publicación digital del PDC-Cuba

Is the GOP trying to starve the United Nations into submission?

To hear Republican politicians tell it, the failure of the United States to stop the Palestinians' headlong drive for member-state status at the U.N. Security Council was the result of employing too many carrots and not enough sticks. That line of reasoning was on full display this week, as Congress froze $200 million in assistance earmarked for the Palestinian Authority in retaliation for its statehood bid. But a number of GOP figures are thinking even bigger -- or smaller, as it turns out: Seeking a tougher U.S. line on a U.N. system that they say allows rogue states to operate with diplomatic impunity, they are rallying support for measures that would fundamentally transform the U.S. relationship with the world's preeminent international body.

Over the past several months, Mitt Romney has been an excellent presidential candidate. He has performed superbly in the debates. He has outorganized his rivals. He has relentlessly stayed on his core theme of putting Americans back to work. He has taken Rick Perry apart with a cold ruthlessness that is a wonder to behold.

And throughout this period of excellence, he has done almost nothing to endear himself to Republican activists. They have spent this season of excellence searching for anyone else: Palin, Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Cain and now (Please! Please!) Christie. On Nov. 4, 2010, Romney earned the support of 23 percent of Republican voters, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Today, he also has support from 23 percent of Republicans nationwide.

The central problem is that Mitt Romney doesn’t fit the mold of what many Republicans want in a presidential candidate. They don’t want a technocratic manager. They want a bold, blunt radical outsider who will take on the establishment, speak truth to power and offend the liberal news media.

Over the past several months, Mitt Romney has been an excellent presidential candidate. He has performed superbly in the debates. He has outorganized his rivals. He has relentlessly stayed on his core theme of putting Americans back to work. He has taken Rick Perry apart with a cold ruthlessness that is a wonder to behold.

And throughout this period of excellence, he has done almost nothing to endear himself to Republican activists. They have spent this season of excellence searching for anyone else: Palin, Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Cain and now (Please! Please!) Christie. On Nov. 4, 2010, Romney earned the support of 23 percent of Republican voters, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Today, he also has support from 23 percent of Republicans nationwide.

The central problem is that Mitt Romney doesn’t fit the mold of what many Republicans want in a presidential candidate. They don’t want a technocratic manager. They want a bold, blunt radical outsider who will take on the establishment, speak truth to power and offend the liberal news media.

Gov. Rick Perry (R) and with Manchester, New Hampshire, Mayor Ted Gatsas. (Kayana Szymczak - GETTY IMAGES)

When I talked to Mike Huckabee last February about his reluctance to run for president again, one of the major reservations he mentioned was the grueling schedule of debates that define the early primary season. "We just rehashed the same stuff, over and over. I was bored with it," said the former Arkansas governor and the winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses. "It was the same tripe, and I found it just incredibly disgusting, and ultimately meaningless."

Given the way things usually operate, that was a fair point. In 2007 and 2008, for instance, the Republican candidates spent the bulk of their time in those debates going round and round about the Iraq war--a subject upon which they generally agreed.

Inmigrantes latinos en Estados Unidos

Uno de los deportes más populares en Estados Unidos es mortificar a los inmigrantes ilegales. Da votos. El propósito es martirizarlos hasta lograr que regresen a sus países. No les expiden licencias de conducir, intentan que no puedan alquilar viviendas y tratan de que se les niegue el acceso al trabajo o a los estudios. Quieren rendirlos y expulsarlos por hambre.

No se trata de que los políticos sean sádicos. Los políticos son animales que se alimentan de votos. No son peores que los dentistas o los poetas. Han percibido que mayoritariamente la sociedad quiere echar a los extranjeros sin papeles y se han lanzado a encabezar la cacería. El senador John McCain, que hace unos años, junto a Ted Kennedy, trataba de que se aprobara una sensata reforma migratoria, hoy se ha sumado a la línea dura para sobrevivir en esta atmósfera de xenofobia incrementada por la crisis económica y el aumento del desempleo.

No es la primera vez que esto ocurre en Estados Unidos. Tras la crisis de 1929, en época de Herbert Hoover, pasó lo mismo y un par de millones de personas, casi todas mexicanas, fueron expulsadas con enorme dureza. Como sucede en nuestros días, miles de norteamericanos culturales, que no hablaban español, acabaron exiliados en México, un país totalmente extraño para ellos.