A Firsthand Look at Socialism

This is in a few days going to be the fifty eighth anniversary of your fleeing the communist regime in Cuba, and yet we've got the leader of the Democratic Party nomination process is praising the Fidel Castro regime. I think we have the clip very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But you know, it's unfair to simple say everything goes bad. You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did. He had a massive literacy program.

Is that a bad thing? Listen? Bernie has spent his entire life, his entire career, praising communist dictators, but this week his latest ode to Fidel Castro frankly just pissed me off. It and this is this is not a joke. This guy is the front runner for the Democratic nomination to be president. And and and he sings the praises of Castro and Cuban communism. My dad fled Cuban fifty seven. Matthiasonia was still there. She was a kid, and so she saw the Cuban revolution firsthand, and she ended up

fighting against Castro. So THEA if you would, I just want you to, first of all, tell me what it was like to be in Cuba when when the revolution happened, when Castro took over, Actually he was, he was a lot of people were happy because finally somebody was coming in that was pretty seen. We're gonna give you a chance to change a hope, We're going to change things around. Everybody was going to have whatever they want to. The poor will never be poor, the rich continued to have money,

and everybody will be the same. In reality, yes, everybody went the same, but everybody was poor. Everybody went down. Everybody got paid the same amount of money. There was no difference between the poor and the rich. Everybody. It's not everyone was. Everyone was poor and suffering and miserable. And everybody was miserable. Everybody was miserable. What Bernie's saying is a bunch of garbage. So you're there, you're you're a teenager. Held were you? Probably he's sixteen fifteen? Okay,

so you're seeing this. You're a teenage girl. Right, you see what's happening. You see Castro begin executing people, Yeah, persecuting people. Nobody could talk, nobody could say anything. They actually trained the people to even be against the family, the sons, against the father, the daughter seconds. So how did he do that by indoctrinated in these people by telling them, we're going to give you this and that and the other, and it's all going to be free.

But you gotta tell us what's going on in your house? Who talk against the government. So everything was persecuting one another, especially the older people that actually we leave a good life before in Cuba it was beautiful. What do people face in terms of their friends and neighbors and families spying on them. You have people in each blog, there is somebody that is responsible to keep an eye on you in your house. So there are an individual every bye and every block. And they tell you you keep

an eye on every neighbor of this blog. So what thing watch for? They're watching for everything if you bring anything you maybe I'm going from United States to Cuba, and they there's somebody coming in, so we need to wash the house in case they go out and sell in the black market or they do something with what you brought in. So there somebody's always keeping an iron you and try to report you a good A good thing that happened to something that happened to me that

is very interesting. One of the trips that I went back to Cuba, I wanted to take the kids, some of the kids from there, to go fishing. I love fishing. So I went in and try to rent a boat and they told me we can't. We don't rambows to Cuban people. And I said, you may leave. And I said, look, I have a passport, I have a fly. Little Friday already left, so I'm coming in to take my family on a boat run. We can't give it to you.

We can't rent you a boat. You're you're Cuban. So because she can't rent a boat because she's Cuban, even though she's an American citizen. Now, yes, you're a Cuban. So you can't do it. That there was a boat in the river that my niece wanted to go in. And when we get in, to ride the boat with the rest of the people, and say, y'all cannot get in. You'll like Cuban, And I said, but we're paying with the same money that they're paying. Well, I'm sorry, you

can't come in. You're not from another country. You're a Cuban, and Cuban people are not allowed. They're not allowed to leave because they know if they were allowed to leave, they'd all live. Sona. How quickly after, as you say, you know, people liked Castro initially they he was promising in the world. How quickly did it turn? I mean, how quickly did it turn? Right away? Right away? He immediately starts saying the policies that he wanted to do. He was going to take tents away from the ridge.

He was going to take tents away from the people to give to other He was to actually take money from you and give it to the poors on the other side. I make my money for what a half. My father worked hard to be where he was. My mother was the greatest school teacher. She was really was proud of what she was doing. My mother itself was told did she have to teach at the school a different kind of curriculum. She was told she need to teach about the revolution, cast through the regime, the things

that needed to happen. My mother have to actually pretend that she was losing her mind and she was just missing immediately. So let me underscore this story and listen. I grew up hearing this story as a kid. I mean, I would sit with my cousin Beebe, who's Sonia's daughter. The two of us would sit literally on the floor in the living room and listen to my dad and Mythasonia tell us stories about the revolution, and my Abuela and Abuela, their parents were there also. So my grandmother, Abuela,

she's a sixth grade teacher. Castro takes over and she's ordered, you must teach Communism to the kids. You must indoctrinate, you must brainwash the kids. And my grandmother said she wasn't going to do it. And so it's funny, Mathiason, you mentioned something just very mild, but my grandmother pretended she was insane in the classroom. She began literally foaming at the mouth and pretending she was insane. Why because

she couldn't quit in the communist dictatorship. See, she wasn't allowed to quit, and she made the decision she would rather have the stigma, have the shame of people thinking she was a crazy person, right then be a part of indoctrinating these kids. That is true, and it was very painful because my mother was a great teutory was loved by many people, but she had to play crazy in order to get out of that s What I want to know is how in Cuba the public opinion

changes very quickly. People see what a monster Castro is and they start to hate his guts. How is it that in the United States, now, so many years on, fifty eight years on since you left, you have a presidential candidate, You got a US senator who's still singing the praises of this guy. What did he miss? He had not been with the human people. He only if you go there as a Cuban, you go and see somebody, a relative, you're going to see the misery that they

leave in. They don't know what to put on the table to serve their kids, They don't know how to get They're gonna get the food that they're going to eat tomorrow. If you're going as somebody from another country or a sa tourist, you're taken to you are actually become prisoner of the government. They take you where they want you to go. They showed you the model school, they showed you the best hospitals, they showed you the

best restaurants. In nineteen eighty nine, Sanders stated, after visiting Cuba, quote I did not see a hungry child. I did not see any homeless people. Bernie said the Cuban people quote had an almost religious affection for Castra. That is not true. He is lying, and he's lying to the people of this country. He is playing on the mind of the younger generation here. He was either himself complicit in the lie, or he was naive enough or ideological enough to let the Castro regime lie to him and say,

look at this, this paradise. They didn't take into what the Cuban people were. Cuban people are starving to death. Cuban people don't have any money to buy anything. So let me take you back there, back to fifty nine, back to sixty the revolution succeeded, you begin fighting against Castro. What happened to you as a result. What happened when you start? I was constantly persecuted. Our people was looking for me everywhere. They want to take me to prison.

They picked me up several times. So you were pretty clearly fighting against totally against Castro. Yes, yes, son, this is after Castro has taken over, so he's to dictate. Yes. So what like when they picked you up? What happened? What does that mean? Well, they they put you in a room and there was people sitting on the floor and everybody's you know, that's where you were, with a whole bunch of people in the floor, and they keep it there for two or three days. My parents did

not know where I was. My mother did not know, so she was going crazy trying to find me. My friends, friends that I have could not even come and find out with my parents where was I or what was wrong with me. They were afraid because everybody was persecuted. So it was very difficult to leave on the Castro regime. When you left Cube, it was sixty two. You left, right, You've been back a bunch of times, right? Yes? What if?

So when you come back you usually bring a duffel bag with medicine, medicine, I drink, food, clothes, cheets, just for relatives, friends, people that need so they can't get anything, nothing, nothing. She leaves a suitcase, she leaves every body, but she leaves her underwear and brawl everything because nobody has underwear there. Because there's so much poverty. You'll wear like sweatpants, a

T shirt. That's one coming right. That is correct. A lot of people don't understand what is the difference between socialism. That is correct. Socialism is simply the economic system of communism. Socialism is government ownership of the means of production or distribution. Cuba in the nineteen fifties was the world's number one producer of sugar. Yeah, it had problems. Look, Batista was

a corrupt dictator. He was a bastard. My father to this day doesn't have his front teeth because Batista's police kicked them in, his guards kick his army officers kicked them in. But what about the universal healthcare? I mean, we're told by a lot of people in the United States, a lot of left wingers. They say Cuba has some of the best healthcare in the world, and everybody's covered.

I can personally, I tell you that I went to the doctor there because I have mosquito buys that he got into effects infection, and they put a shot on me in front of sixty other people that were there waiting for to being seen by a doctor. There's no transportation, there's no gas, so you can't move. Doctors come to a house in a bicycle and they're hungry. They're hungry

when they get there. They come to the house to see a matter of fact, I was in a house visiting and they were trying to see the little girl. He came in a bicycle and I bought some things that there was somebody in the streets selling, and he said, kind of have one. Probably the most visible sign that Cuba hasn't changed or hasn't progressed is they have those old cars, right yes. And you know, people like to think that that's sort of quaint and cute that they

have cars from the nineteen fifties. The reason they had cars from the nineteen fifties is they can't get anything else. You know. The scary thing about all of this is you've got the experience of it, fifty eight years of experience since you left Cuba. There are various studies that have come out that show that even the majority of young Americans, millennials and gen z now embrace socialism and

prefer it to capitalism. Now, the bright side, I will say, the silver lining, is that a much smaller percentage can actually define socialism. So there would seem to be a problem there. But beyond just ignorance, beyond just not knowing what it is, what is drawing young Americans to this evil, evil ideology is the work that they is given out the change. They want to see something different, they want to try something new. It doesn't work, guys, it does

not work. All of this ambition and given it, given it to me, there's nothing given to you. You need to work and try to achieve your dream by hard work, but by doing what you want to get ahead. I mean, I've noticed this with your colleague, Senator Sanders, you know, I mean, he's been talking about this for fifty years and no one listened. But now only you know, now that he's in his mid seventies. It's it's catching on. And I even think of this absent Bernie Sanders. Forget

about him for a second. It took a long time people knew that communism socialism were terrible for so long, and now they don't know that well, and too often they're not taught in schools what happened. You know, how many Bernie supporters know that the Soviet Union killed twenty

million people and China killed seventy seven million people. They don't know that, and so when Bernie defends it, it seems look and I have to admit, I remember in college a guy who lived down the hall for me had a poster on the wall of che Guvar, Yeah, and I went in. I said, hey, that that's really cool. That's all you know. Che Guvar was a guerrilla fought with Fidel Castro in Cuba, And I said, hey, that's

really cool, that's awesome. Have you thought of maybe putting a poster of Hitler next year and maybe Stalin and Mao, like if you're going to celebrate people that torture and murder. Actually Chay was. He was low on the totem pot, but you know, he was good looking, he had stubble and he was you know it. These villains have been

glamorized and it's it's dangerous. You know. We've talked a lot about the political and the economic side of things, how the government takes all your stuff and then they take power away from you. You're both religious. I notice, Sonia, you have a cross that you're wearing. Obviously, Senator Cruz, one of the big aspects of communisms, it's always been practiced,

is the atheism of it all. And I wonder if there's a relation here that, as religiosity in America's declined, as young people are raised more or less without a religion, if maybe that's playing some role in why communism is

catching on. You know, one of the great men of the twentieth century to defeat communism was the Pope was John Paul the Second, Well and and Pope John Paul the Second played a profound role of going going to Poland and and and and and and promising that Poland would be free and speaking up and it was truly I think divine providence, providence, we want God and and and Reagan and Margaret Thatcher all at the same time.

And I think those three people, more than any human beings on earth, defeated the Soviet Union and won the Cold War. Mind you, Bernie was rooting for the Soviet Union during all the rights um it's hiding that, But it's Bernie honeymooned in the Soviet Union, Michael. Where you honeymooned in Hawaii, USA? Okay, that's where, like normal people, you go to the beach, you go to how do you know which? Same times? It was beautiful, We were walking along the beach, we had fun. What kind of

crazy idealogue? Yeah, says sweetheart, I love you so much. Let's do a honeymoon in the Soviet Union. You know that club you play? He says, he's no friend of Putin. There's only one person I know on the national stage that your honeymood. And the Soviet Union. You know, the Soviet Union killed over twenty million people. This is not cute, little faculty leftist. If Bernie was a professor at some liberal arts college out in the frozen tundra, who cares,

He's just corrupting a few young minds. This is someone who wants to be president of the United States, and he kisses up to and apologizes for totalitarian dictators and you know who. He doesn't praise Americans, right, Like, when have you ever heard him speak as positively about Abraham Lincoln as he does about Castro and Ortega and Mao

and Stalinist and communism also hates God. Yeah. If you look at these communist regimes, they persecute faith, They persecute, they prevent people from the beauty of the First Amendment is it gives everyone the right to choose how to worship, what your faith will be. You know, Bernie when he praised China in the debate this week, somehow, when Bernie talked about it, it's great poverty eradication. You don't have to go back to Mao to find the torture and murder.

Right now today there are one million weakers, yeah, a religious and ethnic minority, one million in concentration camps in China today. Why is burning and why are leftists so willing to praise and be proud of regimes that are torturing and murdering people. Do you think this is part of why they make their appeal successfully though, Because the thing I notice so much about the socialists in America today is they're all making these very moral arguments. It's

about human rights. It's about giving people their right to healthcare and their right to have a lot of money. Here's a story my grandmother told me. In the schools you would have of Cuban soldiers come in, and this is kindergarten, first grade, and they'd tell the children. They'd say, close your eyes and pray to Jesus for a piece of candy. And the kids would all do it, and they'd open their eyes and there'd be no candy. And then the soldiers would say, close your eyes and pray

to Fidel Castro for a piece of candy. You're kidding me, And the kids would close their eyes and the soldiers would put candy on their desks, and they'd open their eyes and there was candy. This is the literacy program, Bernie Sanders. It is praising. This is this is the indoctrination that Miabuela refused to participate in. And that is true. They are actually inductrinating the people since they were tiny little kids. Did it work? I mean, the course she

doesn't work. It does people? What don't they work? They don't work. Nobody want to work in Cuba. What do they want to work? They're gonna make the same money that you're making that he's making. What do I want to do that? But do they believe the theory? I mean, does the indoctrination end up persuading purely. They thought that it was going to be reality. They really blind them to believe what they were saying. But they immediately took the blind off. I'm saying, everybody's in the same boat.

We're all hungry. They know they're hungry, they know they're poor, they know miserable, they know that has him. That's right. I mean, there's a reason people every day risk their lives to fleet Cuba. That's correct. You know. You know Reagan the height of the Cold War, he had a great way of putting it. He said, the thing liberals never seemed to notice is on the Berlin Wall, the machine guns all point in one direction. That you didn't get anyone from East Germany saying or from West Germany

saying I gotta go live in that communist paradise. Right. The way I like to put it is a Cuban American. Is the thing liberals ever notice is in Cuba, the rafts are all going one way. Just once. I'd like to see Bernie Sanders go hop on a raft in Key West. Yeah. And by the way, he had a lot of racialized medicine. They there. It's just you can't get you can't actually see a doctor you can't get medicine.

You you can't get toilet paper. Yeah. Well, actually, you know, tying in all of these points on the economic, on the political, and on the religious, Communism has been called the God that failed, right. It was a sort of substitute religion, aus substitute god, and it failed, and you saw it fail personally. What was the what was the biggest shock, I mean, what was the biggest despair, the biggest regret when when you saw something that you had

believed in fail. Well, the the biggest it was seeing the people suffering for not being able to even get food to put a They played so basic, the basic thins that no, don't being able to work, because why do you want to work when you don't have anything to buy with? You know that money disappear from you immediately, and you all know the numbers, but you know an average person make thirty dollars a month, thirty dollars per thirty dollars per month. Wow, so what are you going

to do with that? Right? So, people are being drinking water. You see the kids they dink water with sugar to get their stomach. Fool. It's it's that that basic need. It's so interesting that you say that, because it's communism starts at as this idealistic fantasy, very high falutin, very high minded literacy programs, all that, and then the reality

of the failures, people can't even fill their stomach. That is true, although you know there is one exception, which is the Communist Party rulers look Fidel Castro lived like a billionaire. By the way, Putin lives like a billionaire.

Maduro and Hugo Chabez before him, they live like billionaires. Right, Communism when you have all the power at the top, and and and what does Bernie suggest it would be any different if the government is in charge of everything every place that has happened, the rulers live like kings,

and everyone else's is miserable. Right. Well, we did actually get one mail bad question that I think is very much on this topic, which is with the Democratic Party veering so far to the left of embracing these absolutely disgusting positions, hopefully we'll turn off most of the American people. Should conservatives be happy? Should conservatives be happy that the God that failed is about to fail? The Democratic Party?

Not necessarily You're not as as complacent. I understand people saying, Okay, great, Bernie's so extreme that means Trump will get reelected. I hope Trump gets re elected. I'm working hard to reelect the president. But listen, what is truly terrifying is I think the American people could elect a wild eyed socialist. Yeah, the media. We're a divided country. If one hundred thousand votes had flipped in twenty sixteen, Hillary Clinton would be

the president right now. And Bernie, the media treats him kind of like your crazy uncle. Oh, he's just the crazy uncle. Hadn't that cute? He's praising, murdering, torturing communist dictators. Well, this guy believes this stuff in his heart and soul. He believes that his whole life has been dedicated to it. And and and I got to admit, I am it's all fine and good to celebrate unless he ends up when, Oh God help the direction this country goes. If that happens, well,

because you already fled one communist hellhole. And this was the great hope as America is the great to go. Where do you go there after? The place to go? Well, I hope you won't go anywhere you the listener, we've already used up more than our time, and we've taken up too much of your time, Tisania, But thank you so much for being here, and we've got a lot more coming up on the show anyway, so be sure not to flee anywhere. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict

with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations, and candidates across the country. In twenty twenty two, Jobs Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.