Sen. Jeff Flake Insults Arizona's Cuban-Americans in The Times

"I took a poll of Cuban-Americans in Arizona, and both of them said, ‘Go ahead'" [with your shilling for the Castro regime as an unregistered agent of influence]. — Senator Jeffry Hock Flake, quoted in The New York Times, Feb. 4, 2015

Well, if Senator "Jeff" Flake is going to be elliptical, I reserve the right to finish his unfinished sentences for him. I suppose that he would prefer "Go ahead" with restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba and scrapping the trade embargo, but that is altogether too humble and conveys no idea of his central role among Republican appeasers of Castro in Congress.

Mr. Flake is wrong, of course. There are not two Cuban-Americans in Arizona, but 10,692, constituting 2 percent of that state's population, or three times their representation nationwide (0.63). Of the 50 states, Arizona's Cuban-American population is the 13th largest in the country. The Arizona senator must think he represents North Dakota with its 265 Cuban-American or Wyoming with its 275.

Can you imagine what The Times' reaction would have been if Flake had said, "I took a poll of Jewish-Americans in Arizona, Barry Goldwater's family, and decided to support Jews for Jesus." (Not that there is anything wrong with supporting Jews for Jesus).

But it's OK to insult, belittle and discount Cuban-Americans even if they are your constituents. It's not like 10,000 votes could settle any race in Arizona, right?

According to Census Bureau estimates, "Jeff" Flake's hometown of Snowflake, AZ (yes, it's named for his family) has a population of 5,564, which means that there are almost twice as many Cuban-Americans in Arizona as Snowflakers. I'm not suggesting it, but I bet that if the local Cubans all moved to Snowflake, the Flakes would quit their ancestral home and move to Utah.

For the last 150 years, the Flake family has held virtually every elective office in Snowflake and sent numberless Flakes to the Statehouse and to Congress. It's like a miniature Cuba if you were to add 100 more years to the Castro dynasty. It is easy to understand why "Jeff" Flake feels such empathy for Cuba's rulers and it really has nothing to do with the Church of Latter Day Saints' desire that Raúl Castro legalize their religion in Cuba and allow Mormon missionaries to proselytize there for the first time since 1959.

We take Senator Flake at his word when he tells The Times that the right of Americans to carouse in Cuba and thus underwrite the Castro regime trumps the Cuban people's right to be free. We won't even ask him to show us where exactly in the Constitution the founding fathers bestowed that inalienable right on their fellow Americans.

One final observation: Do you think, as I do, that "Flake" is a bad name for a senator or any human being, and that sensible people bearing that name through no fault of their own should change it just because they can? In Cuba, it is not allowed for anyone named "Fidel" to change his name (and a great many Cubans were named Fidel around 1959). There is no law in Arizona, however, that compels the Flakes to remains Flakes forever. Why not just adopt the name "Snow?" That's flakey enough.


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