AROUND
THE CORNER
The
headline reads: "Reno Plans Removing Boy by Force in Thursday
Meeting With Aides; Told Staff That President Wants Boy Removed."
As I put it in my
last column, with the Clinton gang pushing the line that
Elian Gonzalez is being "abused" by his Miami relatives, "can
the tanks be far behind?" Apparently they are right around
the corner. Reno reportedly told her aides on Thursday that
"the president wants the boy removed from the house." She
then outlined a detailed plan, obviously prepared well in
advance, mapping out an operation designed to capture the
boy and drag him, kicking and screaming, to his beloved Commie
father. The meeting, described as an "emotional" one, involved
Justice Department lawyers, immigration officials and law
enforcement experts who heard Reno describe how she will seek
a federal court order demanding the boy's surrender. According
to Drudge, "if the family does not comply with the order,
law enforcement officials will be directed to enter the home
to capture the boy." Drudge also informs us that "the attorney
general's course of action is so detailed"
that "specific individuals who will be assigned to enter the
house have already been chosen." The wheels of evil are turning
swiftly: we can hear them whirring and humming as the machinery
of repression gears up for action. Are we looking at another
Waco?
RENO
REBUFFED
Our
lawless government, presided over by the First Felon, was
enraged by its stunning defeat on Wednesday, when the U.S.
Court of Appeals disdainfully dismissed Janet Reno's egregious
legal arguments against Elian's right to petition for political
asylum in the US. The government had no case: plenty of underage
asylum seekers have been granted hearings, and had their day
in court, although the Immigration and Naturalization Service
has hardly had a consistent policy on this question. At issue
was what Congress meant when it passed a law stating: "Any
alien who is physically present in the United States . . .
irrespective of such alien's status, may apply for asylum
in accordance with this section." Reno's legal lynch mob argued
that "any alien" meant "any alien above the age of eighteen."
The court, however, was not buying it: "If Congress had meant
to include only some aliens," the judge dryly remarked, "perhaps
Congress would not have used the words 'any aliens.'"
RAGING
BULL
This
was too much for the unstable and heavily medicated Reno,
whose disease-wracked body is shaking with the devastating
effects of Parkinson's – and is now quivering with equal
amounts of rage. Who knows how much testosterone is pumping
through the veins of that sexually ambivalent body, flooding
her brain cells with a murderous rage? Mad Dog Reno, the Clinton
gang's pit bull, is about to go on a rampage. Before this
raging bull is through, not only Elian but the whole nation
will be so thoroughly traumatized that Waco will seem like
a Sunday school picnic.
BY
THE HAIR
The
legal and political meaning of what is happening to Elian
seems completely lost on our so-called "liberals," whose illiberal
opinions are increasingly taking on an explicitly authoritarian
air. It used to be that "liberals" were for the right to asylum.
Wasn't it liberals who once gloried in the US as a haven for
persecuted peoples the world over? Didn't it used to be the
liberals who fought for the rights of youth, for their legal
right to personhood, insisting on their status as autonomous
beings, and the conservatives who insisted on their God-given
right to treat children as chattel slaves? No more. These
days, according
to the polls, the more liberal you are the more likely
you are to approve of Reno's plan to go in there guns blazing,
rip the cutesy stuffed animals out of the kid's arms, and
drag him by the hair all the way back to the Cuban gulag.
According to this poll:
"Democrats
were definitive in their support of using force (59% yes,
32.9% no) while Republicans were equally divided (43.6% yes,
44.6% no). Younger respondents, those 18-24 years-old were
divided (47.5% yes, 46.3% no) while older respondents, those
55-69 years-old were adamant that force be used (53.2% yes,
33.1% no)."
A
DEFINING MOMENT
"Definitive"
is exactly the right word. This is a bunch of left-of-center
old fogies who were flower children during the sixties and
have now moulted into their own distorted idea of what their
much-vilified parents were like. In their heyday, as champions
of "freedom" and opposition to war, these graying hippies
cheered the bombing of Belgrade and think we ought to model
our healthcare system on Cuba's. They think Reno was right
to massacre the inhabitants of Waco – who were, after
all, hated Christians – just as they will hail
her bloody victory when she moves in on Miami. The bad news
is that these cretins are the majority.
ESCAPE
TO CAPTIVITY
This
underscores the irony and tragedy at the heart of Elian's
odyssey – and the odysseys of thousands of other asylum
seekers, Cuban or whatever, who see in America the homeland
of freedom, and their own. They came all this way, desperately
clinging to makeshift rafts, risking death on the high seas
and capture by either the Cuban authorities or the Coast Guard,
scrambling onto the beaches gasping for air and the chance
to breathe free – only to discover that they have washed
up on the shores of a tyranny than is in many ways similar
to the one they escaped. To their horror, and growing bewilderment,
Cuban-Americans who fled Castro's "worker's paradise" are
confronted with the realization that the regimes in Havana
and Washington, D.C. have an awful lot in common. Both
use the state apparatus as a weapon against their political
enemies, and will not hesitate to come crashing through the
door in pursuit of dissidents – or anyone who challenges
their authority. So brittle and uncertain is their rule that
the least amount of resistance provokes a wildly disproportionate
response – retaliation that is usually quite deadly.
Both hate religion, and seek to banish it from the public
square, and both are horrified by the fervent religious conviction
of Miami's Elianistas, adherents of Santeria
– for whom the boy is the living incarnation of Elegua,
one of the numerous aspects of the Christ child. Both regimes
are militantly egalitarian and have a long history of aggressive
"internationalism." Fidel's armies in Africa and Grenada,
and Che's "internationalist" heroics in Bolivia and throughout
South America, earned Cuba the plaudits of Commies the world
over during the Cold War – none more effusive than American
leftists. This same cause, "internationalism," was invoked
by our own President as American bombers rained death on targets
from Belgrade to Baghdad. And the process of convergence is
rapidly accelerating: by the time Elian reaches adulthood,
even if he manages to stay in America, he will lose his freedom
in any event, as the Cubanizaton of America is completed.
BROTHERS
Is
anyone surprised that Clinton has personally given the order
to seize the child? Clinton and Fidel are brothers under the
skin. If Clinton had his way his term of office would rival
Fidel's. Both are ruthless liars with a sense of showmanship,
political survivors who cling to power like dope addicts who
can never get enough. And then there is the legacy factor
. . .
IN
SEARCH OF REDEMPTION
The
President does not want to go out of office without a final
pathetic flourish, a sad attempt to establish a "legacy" much
beyond snickering jokes about cigars. With the Congress locked
in a partisan death-grip, and the likelihood of any domestic
legislation getting through big enough to attain legacy status
virtually nil, Clinton will naturally gravitate toward the
foreign policy realm to find redemption. Seen in the context
of a planned rapprochement with Cuba, this administration's
fixation on the immigration status of a six-year-old refugee
begins to make a twisted kind of sense. Instead of being remembered
as the sleazebag he is, our dear chief executive will go down
in history as the architect of a new era in US-Cuban relations,
the man who really ended the cold war – or so
Clinton and his advisors hope.
THOSE
AMERICANS
As
Pat Buchanan has pointed out, it is long past time to end
the embargo on trade and travel with Cuba: it helps keep Castro
in power, and generates anti-Americanism not only in Cuba
but throughout the Southern hemisphere. Our allies deride
us, and rightly ignore the embargo, glad to profit from our
policy even as they sneer "Oh, those Americans! You
know how they are!" The embargo was a mistake from the beginning,
and the sooner it is dropped the better. But if Clinton wants
to normalize relations with Cuba, at the price of one boy's
freedom, then that is too much to pay. Normalization of trade
and diplomatic relations with Cuba is the right course in
any event, and can be effected unilaterally by the US: no
negotiations with Castro are necessary, and therefore there
must be no "deal" between Washington and Havana setting down
terms and conditions.
DEATH
WARRANT
It
is not hard to imagine the unwritten coda of a Clinton-Castro
joint communiqué announcing the normalization of relations
stipulating Elian's return. Initialing such an agreement would
be the equivalent of Clinton signing Elian's death warrant.
As the living symbol of resistance to the Castro regime, the
boy's life and freedom in Cuba would always be at risk. Certainly
he would be the most watched citizen in a society where government
surveillance of everyday life is conducted on a block-by-block
basis. Like the captive Panchen
Llama, the Peking-approved living incarnation of the boy
Buddha, Elian will live in a government-guarded compound,
under the watchful eye of the regime, in sad and lonely exile.
This is the fate Clinton and Reno have all mapped out for
him.
JUDY
WOODRUFF SMEARS CUBAN-AMERICANS
That
Janet Reno would even consider sending in armed agents to
take possession of the boy tells us all we need to know about
the sheer irresponsibility and heavy-handedness of this administration.
If this were Al Sharpton defying the authority of Rudy Giuliani,
or Jesse Jackson defying the law and common sense in pursuit
of some politically correct cause, this kind of federal action
would be unthinkable. For five months Cuban-Americans have
been subjected to a smear campaign launched by the usual suspects:
as just one example, the other day on CNN the insufferable
Judy Woodruff was railing that "a group of armed men" are
stationed next door to the home of Lazaro Gonzalez, and have
pledged to defend the child against the coming assault. She
was soon disabused of this extravagant notion by the on-the-spot
reporter, who remarked that the hundreds of journalists jostling
each other for position in front of the house had seen neither
hide nor hair of such gunmen. Little cracks of disappointment
creased Judy's wooden face, pulling at the corners of her
down-turned mouth as she thanked him somewhat curtly for his
report. God, how I hate that bitch.
NO
U-TURNS?
It
is hard to believe that Reno is repeating her Waco strategy
as we observe the mournful anniversary of that monstrous crime.
So often, in Clinton's America, we seem to be living in a
nightmare, a "bad trip" of near psychedelic intensity, in
which evil is omnipotent. In Elian, the good is embodied in
the guileless vulnerability of a six-year-old boy who demands
his day in court. Washed up on the shores of freedom, rescued
by Providence and miraculously unharmed, he claims sanctuary
and the right to a new life. But poor Elian arrived several
years too late. There was a time when this republic was the
lighthouse of freedom the world over, the homeland of liberty
and a beacon to liberals (in the classical sense) in Europe,
South America, and beyond. But that time is long gone, and
we won't tarry over the question of when our old republic
slipped from our fingers. As Garet Garrett, that sage of the
Old Right and prophet of decline put it:
"We
have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire.
If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single
stroke between day and night; the precise moment does not
matter. There was no painted sign to say: 'You are now entering
Imperium.' Yet it was a very old road and the voice of history
was saying: 'Whether you know it or not, the act of crossing
may be irreversible.' And now, not far ahead, is a sign that
reads: 'No U-turns.'"
AN
EMPEROR'S LEGACY
In
the post-cold war world ruled by the American Imperium, the
Emperor's legacy is worth more than the freedom of a little
boy, and that is the calculation that got us to this point.
That is the rationale behind the coming explosion in Miami,
where the Cuban-American refugee population is likely to come
into violent conflict with federal authorities. If Attorney
General Reno carries out her demonic plan, in clear violation
of the spirit if not the letter of the recent court decision,
then the rule of law is finished in this country – and
massive violence is probable if not inevitable. This could
mean the beginning of the radicalization of Cuban-Americans,
who will be sure to take away from this experience at least
one invaluable lesson: the main enemy is not in Havana but
in Washington, DC.
I'VE
GOT MAIL!
I
have received a lot of e-mails about my two columns on Elian
Gonzalez, so many that I don't have time to answer them all.
But for all of you who have questions and comments - Bronx
cheers as well as accolades - there is a very interesting
discussion taking place on our Yahoo
club website. Go to the site by following the preceding
link, and join up (just click on the right-hand side where
it says "Join this club"). Our Yahoo club has recently been
upgraded, with an expanded news section, photos, and links
as well as a scintillating discussion board that is very active
and well worth your time. This is your opportunity to let
us know what you think of what you read here - so don't be
shy. Sound off!
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