Cuban immigrant warns: Democrats' agenda 'sounds familiar'

Cuban immigrant Maximo Alvarez speaks to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 24, 2020 (video screenshot)

In the wake of Bernie Sanders' declaration that his "revolution" has mainstreamed policies once though extreme in the Democratic Party comes a warning from a man who fled Fidel Castro's revolution.

"I'm speaking to you today because I've seen people like this before," Maximo Alvarez told the Republican National Convention on opening night Monday.

"I've seen movements like this before. I've seen ideas like this before, and I'm here to tell you, we cannot let them take over our country."

Alvarez, the president of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, recalled fleeing Castro's regime in 1961 at the age of 13.

"I've heard the promises of Fidel Castro, and I cannot forget those who grew up around me, who looked like me, who suffered, and starved, and died because they believed those empty promises," he said.

"They swallowed the communist poison pill."

Alvarez said that by the "grace of God, I lived the American dream, the greatest blessing I ever had."

"My dad, who only had a 6th grade education told me, 'Don't leave this place. You will never be as lucky as me. ... There is no place to hide.'"

Sanders, as WND reported, touted the success of his far-left "revolutionary" movement in his speech on opening night of the Democratic National Convention one week ago.

"Our campaign ended several months ago, but our movement continues and is getting stronger every day," said Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist.

"Many of the ideas we fought for, that just a few years ago were considered 'radical,' are now mainstream."

Alvarez said the Democrats' proposals "don't sound radical to my ears."

"They sound familiar."

He noted that Castro was asked at the beginning of his revolution if he was a communist, and he replied that he was a Roman Catholic.

"He knew he had to hide the truth," Alvarez said. "But the country I was born in is gone. Totally destroyed."

Alvarez said that he may be Cuban-born, but he is "100% American."

"This is the greatest country in the world," he said, his voice beginning to break. " ... If I gave away everything that I have today, it would not equal 1% of what I was given when I came to this great country of ours."

America has a choice now, he said, pointing to the "echoes of his past" that he sees in Seattle, Chicago, Portland and other cities.

"I choose President Trump, because I choose America, I choose freedom," he said.

He concluded by recalling the words of his father.

"I still hear my dad," he said, pausing to collect himself as tears welled. "There is no other place to go."

See the speech:

'The future of our planet is at stake'

Republicans point out that some of the "radical" ideas that now have become "mainstream" for Democrats were incorporated in the recommendations of the "unity task force" established by Biden and Sanders. The task force, following Sanders' strong run for the nomination, laid out a progressive roadmap for Democrats in July built on the premise "the U.S. economy is rigged against the American people."

It includes free college, universal pre-Kindergarten, a "public option" as a move toward universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and elements of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' Green New Deal, such as setting a deadline for carbon-free electricity generation.

An estimated $2 trillion of the $10 trillion Biden proposes in new spending, would go to achieving what the presumptive Democratic nominee calls "environmental justice."

Biden has promised to raise taxes to fund the spending.

The Democrats' unity agenda effectively would curb the authority of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and create new incentives for illegal immigration. Illegal aliens, among other benefits, would immediately qualify for taxpayer-funded health care. Asylum laws would be relaxed, essentially allowing anyone to simply make an unsubstantiated claim.

Support for sanctuary cities and late-term abortions are also on the agenda.

"To everyone who supported other candidates in the primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake," Sanders intoned in his DNC speech.

"The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president."