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Comment by Jensson | Hacker News Reader

> Is Cuba a “tyrannical dictatorship”?

Yes, looks like it works just like any other communist state. Communism needs to be maintained through tyranny, people wouldn't vote for it if they could which is why communist states must constantly supress dissent and never allow people to vote for other parties. When people can vote they quickly vote out communism in favor of more liberal parties, communism is very short lived in free societies as when people try it they quickly learn to hate it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/world/americas/cuba-judge...

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Do you know anything about Cuba besides what the children of ex-Cuban plantation owners say?

Could Cubans vote away communism if they wanted? If not then it isn't free. People could vote away capitalism in USA and become communist if they wanted. Every democracy could.

Absolutely, but Cuba’s democracy is very localized and bottom up in order to prevent a wealthy ruling class from controlling dominant narratives, i.e. oligarchy like in the US. And they don’t hold ridiculous election performances every 4 years to wrangle consent from the public.

Democracy is very sensitive and the liberal democracies in Western capitalist countries are brutally anti-democratic. Most Americans realize this but will be so quick to presume any other country a dictatorship.

Cuba has never been a “dictatorship”. Castro and his successors were and still are deeply loved by the Cuban working class that put them into power. US leaders understand this and it’s why none of their attacks have penetrated. See: Bay of Pigs

This is not accurate. Cubans could not vote out the Communist Party since it is enshrined in the Cuban constitution that there is only one party, the Communist Party, and all other political parties are classed as "illegal".

"Cuba is a one-party state, with the Communist Party of Cuba being described as the "superior driving force of the society and the state" in the Constitution of Cuba, and all other political parties are illegal. Elections in Cuba are not democratic because the government does not allow free and fair voting." ~https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Cuba

So how would that work?

“Free and fair voting” is an extremely subjective phrase. In many liberal democracies, this just means “the rich get their way.”

Call it what you want, how do you defeat the communist party in elections if it is enshrined in the Cuban constitution that there can only be one legal party, and that party is the communist party?

How does that jibe with democracy and free elections?

It's very easy to love your leader when the only alternative is the labor camp.

??? Do you even have the first idea what you’re talking about? The other “option” was Batista. And Cuba is more democratic than the US, but it doesn’t allow oligarchs to astroturf consent like in liberal democracies.

There are always a lot of options if you don't have marxists around :)

Cuba was just a Soviet Union's project to burn enough money to show that socialism works. But it didn't. And I very unhappy that we were living so poor in soviet era while paying those "democracies" which were modeled just like our country - with literally no choice on any elections.

And being rich is not a sin, btw.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. The Soviet Union had no role whatsoever in the Cuban revolution.

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