By Uche Onyebadi

TO some of his supporters and certainly most of his ideological opponents, President Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba is nothing short of political and diplomatic anathema. The unwritten doctrine is that Cuba is the United States’ eternal enemy. No one, not even the president of the U.S. could publicly utter the word “Cuba” unless in very unflattering terms. Yet, President Obama had the effrontery to address his compatriots last week and unequivocally let them know that he was restoring ties with the pariah state of Cuba. Then, to show the extent of his resolve, he announced that embassies will be opened in both Washington D.C. and Havana to cement the new diplomatic reality.

President Obama’s rationale for his bold move is rooted in his observation that over half a century of diplomatic tit-for-tat between the U.S. and Cuba has not yielded anything positive for both countries. Therefore, he solemnly declared, “It’s time for a new approach.” That approach was developed amidst such secrecy unknown to most observers of the White House. But, it has since emerged that it involved Pope Francis and the Vatican, Canada, a seemingly innocent handshake between Obama and Cuba’s Raul Castro at the funeral of Nelson Mandela in South African almost a year ago, and the release and exchange of convicted U.S. and Cuban spies.

In a simultaneous telecast in Havana, President Raul Castro hailed the new twist in relations between the U.S. and his country. He noted that “we have been able to make headway in the solution of some topics of mutual interest for both nations….President Obama’s decision deserves the respect and acknowledgment of our people.” Thereafter, the younger of the aged Castro brothers threw in a note of caution by reminding the world that the opening diplomatic ties “in no way means that the heart of the matter has been resolved. The economic, commercial and financial blockade, which causes enormous human and economic damages to our country, must cease.”

It is reasonable to imagine that the White House did not expect a chorus of supportive Kumbayah across the United States in reaching out to the Cubans. But, it is doubtful that Obama’s operatives anticipated the massive riposte to his initiative. Of course, most of the attacks have come from the conservative group in U.S. politics, as well as from the population of fairly elderly Cuban Americans who experienced life under Fidel Castro first hand, or those who still recall how the Cuban system used iron gloves to deal harshly with their parents.

Among the latter group is a young and rising star in the conservative Republican camp known as Marco Rubio, a senator from the state of Florida. Here is how Senator Rubio responded to Obama’s bold move on Cuba: “This entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, on a lie, the lie and the illusion that more commerce and access to money and goods will translate to political freedom for the Cuban people. All this is going to do is give the Castro regime, which controls every aspect of Cuban life, the opportunity to manipulate these changes to perpetuate itself in power.”

As usual, the conservative response did not address the core of Obama’s stand on the issue of restoring ties with Cuba, which is to say, as he put it, “I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result.” The Republican approach seems to be to keep sustaining the enmity between the U.S. and Cuba in the hope that someday, somehow, Cuba will capitulate to the U.S. But, after fifty-four years of such antagonistic policy, there is no evidence that Cuba is about to wobble on its knees and surrender to its neighbor of only ninety nautical miles away.

Potential flag bearer

There is little doubt that reaching out to Cuba will form part of the issues in the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. It is already known that Hillary Clinton, the potential flag-bearer for the Democrats, supports the move on Cuba, and in fact participated in initiating the move while serving as Secretary of State in the Obama administration. On the other hand, Jeb Bush and other hopefuls for the Republican Party presidential ticket, have drawn their political daggers in readiness for battle on this issue. Hopefully, both sides would pay attention to polls to know what the political barometer reads on the issue. For now, more Cuban-Americans are in favor of Obama’s reaching out to their motherland, than those who oppose it. As one can imagine, the young Cuban-Americans are more in favor of the new friendship with Cuba.

What I find intriguing is why President Obama reserved his appetite for bold actions such as the one he has taken on Cuba, till the dusk of his administration. But for his audacious authorization of the mission that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden and the passing of the Affordable Care law, Obama has largely given the impression that he is a man who has little interest in really rocking the boat.  I give him an A grade for the Cuban decision.

At the height of the cold war in the 1970s, U.S. President Nixon boldly visited China and resumed diplomatic ties with that country at a time when the word “communism” was like a mortal sin to most Americans. Now, Obama has taken his own bold step and plans to visit Cuba before he steps out of the White House. This is the sterner stuff presidents are made of. I only wish Obama had had the audacity to take a number of similar actions long before now.