BTW, it's Bill Clinton's fault that the Prez can't just do it... the Cuba sanctions were always just a series of Executive Orders that any prez could change... but then the Republican Congress got PO'd when the Cuban defense forces shot down 2 Cessna's that anti-Castro people were using to try to sneak in weapons, so they codified all that stuff in an actual law. That was when Clinton was in his "I'll bend over to make Republican's happy, so I can be even more famous" phase, so he signed the damn thing like a dummy. Which means he took things that were always intended as temp measures and made them permanent.
Fortunately, even that dumb law still gives the prez lots of leeway about the details, so things will loosen up a lot, even if the next Congress doesn't like it... which they won't...
This has very little to do with Republicans and Democrats but you seem like you think you know it all. People were tortured and killed. Crimes against humanities, families torn apart, people had to up and leave loved ones if there was a hint of suspicion. There were labor camps, institutionalized people where lobotomies were performed. This conversation would send me to jail if I were in Cuba now or be targeted by their group, who congregates outside homes to throw rocks, beat, and humiliate under the government "repudiation act" http://cpj.org/repor...d-countries.php
Most just wanted there to be some change before they are able to reap the benefits because no matter what the Cuban people will still suffer. The Government will just be more funded to do as they please once they open everything back up. But hey its funny to watch the other party squirm at the expense of a nation of people right haha.........