Estefans' new collaboration hits sour note (Miami Hairball)

Estefans' new collaboration hits sour note

By JACKIE BUENO SOUSA
jsousa@MiamiHerald.com
If Gloria Estefan decides to sing a tune while hosting President Barack Obama at her home Thursday, she may want to consider her 1989 hit Cuts Both Ways.

'Cause you and I are dangerous

We want too much and life ain't that way

Don't ask for more

Don't be a fool

Haven't we already broken every rule

The Estefans may have broken more than a rule when they decided to host a cocktail reception for the president during his visit to South Florida on Thursday. Estefan, along with husband Emilio, also broke a bond that had united them with Miami's Cuban community, whose members largely oppose the president's agenda.

The Estefans, for their part, have implied that they're simply using the opportunity to increase awareness about the Cuban people's plight. What's more, they note that they believe in supporting good candidates regardless of party.

They would have a convincing argument except for one very important detail: The event isn't merely a conversation about Cuba with the president while sipping a cortadito. Nor is it designed to raise funds for a particular cause or candidate they support.

They are hosting a $30,400-a-couple fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee, and, by extension, helping to fund the entire Democratic Party agenda. It's a proactive, partisan stance that goes well beyond, say, deciding to sing at a presidential inauguration or accepting a presidential appointment to oversee a nonpartisan cause.

Mention the Estefans and many no longer conjure up images of freedom and catchy tunes. Now -- rightly or wrongly -- many associate the name with Obamacare, abortion, powerful unions, creation of a welfare state.

The event also means the Estefans are helping to promote Democratic Party candidates, regardless of whether a particular candidate espouses ideas they would support. In other words, the decision to hold the fundraiser is the opposite of their stated belief of being nonpartisan when it comes to choosing our leaders.

Of course, the Estefans can try to assert their belief in partisan neutrality by holding a high-profile fundraiser in the future for the Republican Party. Such a move, however, likely would be viewed as little more than an attempt at damage control. That being the case, Gloria Estefan's hit Seal Our Fate may be the appropriate song for Thursday's event.

Surely, you say, it's not as bad as

You make it sound

If we make a mistake

You can always turn it back around....

Before you know it's gotten way out of hand

In ways that you had never dreamed of

Never worth the price you pay in the end

The announcement that they would host the fundraiser for the president was only hours old when I started hearing friends and relatives talk about throwing away all their Gloria Estefan CDs. Soon bloggers were labeling them as traitors. In one swoop, all the good will they had built with so many followers, all the years of supporting nonpartisan causes such as freedom and human rights, seemed to disappear. In many ways, that's not fair to the couple, who have done so many good things to help our community.

Yet the reaction also is a reminder that, like freedom, celebrity can be a two-edged sword, best wielded with careful forethought. The Estefans, like all celebrities, have the right to support a particular candidate, to support a particular cause. Just as it's their right to support a political party.

Not supporting the Estefans in their effort, well, that's everyone else's right.

It cuts both ways.


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Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/13/v-print/1578148/estefans-new-collaboration-hits.html#ixzz0l5IJjnae

The Miami Herald is projecting its own position again.

Never mind that the latest Bendixen surveys of Cuban-Americans and their children show consistent growth in Democratic Party voter registrations, w/ the younger gen majority Dems.

Someone posted that survey here last year. I'll try to find it later.

Never mind the toothless wonders chasing Code Pink down Calle ocho in front of the Versailles. US based Cubans and their offspring have always been pretty much split R/D. Both parties have been very good to them (all of the immigration perks and Obama's recent granting Cuban-Americans 1st class extra rights). opensecrets.org used to have a graph showing the political demographics of S.Fla Cuban-Americans (registrations, funding, contributions large and small, etc) that several of us used to post frequently, but its not at its old link anymore.

Mas Canosa got Clinton the support of even Miami's extremist right wing, after Clinton did a u-turn on US/Cuba policy.

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and sadly the whole mess of the Damas de Blanco plus the dinner (just a quick one hour stop I heard) while Obama is in Florida at the Estefans shows us a nasty reality:

Miami has not changed, the pressure is extreme on moderates and moderate left to move rightwards and candidates DEMOCRATIC candidates the likes of Wasserman etc. will KISS rightwing rear till the cows come home.

Opportunism and no tears for the Cubans on the island except for whaaaaaaa Yoani and whaaaaa the Damas who are pretty innocent in the game but are being used by the right to attempt to prove a moral point against Cuba.

Meanwhile Cuban doctors continue to heal tens of thousands.

I think change is REALLY going to be slow in coming at this rate. Our only chance is lifting travel restrictions.