Former Cuban foreign minister and National Assembly president Ricardo Alarc贸n was one of the communist regime鈥檚 most powerful figures. He was also one of its most Orwellian, a master of dictatorship doublespeak who could dismiss the island鈥檚 human rights repression 鈥� 鈥淐uba has no political prisoners because political opposition doesn鈥檛 matter here,鈥� he once remarked 鈥� with the kind of pretzel logic only the most Kool-Aid-drunk ideologues can muster.
But a few days before Alarc贸n died last Saturday, we were reminded that all too often the folks who can be as pretzel-logical as Cuban communists are their mortal enemies: right-wing Cuban politicians in Miami.
As Republican state Sen. Ileana Garcia drove home with her gobsmackingly ludicrous remarks about abortion at the Miami Beach Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club.
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Attempting to explain why Florida鈥檚 new, more restrictive abortion law allows no exceptions for rape victims, Garcia claimed it鈥檚 a way to save women and girls trapped in human trafficking. She argued it will help prevent trafficking victims who become pregnant from getting abortions. And if they can鈥檛 get abortions, their traffickers won鈥檛 consider them valuable 鈥渃ommodities鈥� anymore.
鈥淭hey release [those pregnant women and girls] from the trafficking ring,鈥� Garcia concluded. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we went to that point鈥� of not excluding rape from the new law, which allows legal abortion only in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy instead of the previous 24-week limit.
READ MORE: Right now, it's Latin America who can help America regain its senses on abortion
First, this exposes Garcia鈥檚 wanton ignorance of human trafficking rings. If the trafficker wants his pregnant 鈥渃ommodity鈥� to get an abortion, she will. Or does Garcia really believe monsters who hold other humans against their will and force them into prostitution stop and say: 鈥淲ait, I need to follow Florida鈥檚 new abortion statute鈥�?
Second, it鈥檚 wantonly cruel. It showcases the extremist suggestion that even trafficking victims should be forced to carry their traumatic rape pregnancies to term to satisfy pro-life dogma.
And third, speaking of dogma, Garcia鈥檚 is the sort of tortured syllogism a doctrinaire doublespeaker like Alarc贸n would have been proud of. In 2008, a Cuban student named Eliecer Avila had the guts to publicly challenge Alarc贸n about the shackles the regime clamped on freedoms like foreign travel. Alarcon鈥檚 response: If Cubans were allowed to fly out of Cuba 鈥渢he skies would be too dangerously congested鈥� and pose a safety risk for el pueblo the communist party is ordained to protect.
If Garcia weren鈥檛 the daughter of Cuban exiles and the founder of Latinas for Trump, you might be excused for thinking she studied the rhetorical arts under communist apparatchiks like Alarc贸n.
In fact, if Garcia weren鈥檛 the daughter of Cuban exiles 鈥� and if she weren鈥檛 the founder of Latinas for Trump 鈥� you might be excused for thinking she studied the rhetorical arts under communist apparatchiks like Alarc贸n.
It could have explained her equally ludicrous remarks earlier this year about race. Black people, she said, should 鈥渕ove on from鈥� racism, just as she got over it 鈥� a White Cuban whose own experience growing up in Miami, she astonishingly asserted, was 鈥渘ot at all鈥� different from theirs.
CLUELESS DISINFORMATION
Soon after that came her chilling declaration during Florida Senate debate that 鈥済ay is not a permanent thing.鈥� The belief among the religious right that LGBTQ people can be programmed out of their biological orientation has of course all the scientific grounding of creationism; but Garcia capped her speech with the clueless disinformation that most transgender people who do the full surgical transition 鈥渆nd up committing suicide.鈥� In fact, last year affirmed that trans people who complete the gender surgery are less likely to commit suicide.
But factual data like that mean little more to reactionary politicos like Garcia than they do to revolutionary pols like Alarc贸n. That鈥檚 what makes the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 apparent decision to trash Roe v. Wade, a half century of legal precedent and constitutional abortion rights so worrisome. The ideological movement that鈥檚 led to it is, for the most part, as contemptuous of reasonableness 鈥� the sort of reasonableness that marked the original 1973 Roe ruling 鈥� as the ideological regime that Alarc贸n helped to lead is.
You don鈥檛 arrive at 1984-esque pretzel logic like 鈥渢here are no political prisoners because we鈥檝e outlawed political opposition,鈥� or 鈥渕aking rape victims carry pregnancies to term is good for them because it prevents future rape,鈥� unless you鈥檙e trying to enforce an unreasonable mindset.
Unless you don鈥檛 mind sounding as illogical as your mortal enemies.
