Younger Cubans May Break To Dems

There is a possibility Democrats can court young Cuban voters.

If Democrats act as a catalyst for change, Cuban Americans from their party will be in a position that could present both opportunity and political peril.

'There is this ongoing presumption that if you're Cuban you're automatically a Republican, and when you tell people you're Democrat, it's almost like the old guard looks at you and says, `I didn't realize you're a communist,' '' said Betancourt, president of the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus.

Betancourt is counting on disillusionment with President Bush's Cuba policy to attract younger Cuban-American voters, in particular, to the Democratic camp. ''You've had a Republican president and you've had a Republican-controlled Congress,'' she said. ``What changes have we seen?''

SOLD OUT?

Joe Garcia, vice president of the New Democrat Network, said the Bush administration hobbled the Republican Party by ``selling itself out to the ultra-right.''

There is the argument from Jonah Goldberg that President Bush's policies were too liberal. I understand Goldberg's argument that conservatives see nation building and No Child Left Behind as policies that have their origins in liberalism. Bush has used to former to help corporate interests and the latter as a political payoff to Christian supporters. Voters know this and view these policies as iltra-right. The problem wasn't Bush being too liberal. It's that his policies pandered to the fringes of the Republican Party.