President Obama told the Cuban people this morning the Communist revolution that brought the Castros to power was a “liberation movement,” just like America’s own revolution.

“Here’s my message to the Cuban government and the Cuban people,” Obama said. ”The ideals that are the starting point for every revolution, America’s revolution, Cuba’s revolution, the liberation movements around the world, these ideals find their truest expression, I believe, in democracy.”


“Not because American democracy is perfect,” he emphasized, ”but because we’re not, and we like every country need the space that democracy gives us to change. . . . Many suggested that I come here and ask the people of Cuba to tear something down, but I’m appealing to the young people of Cuba who will lift something up, build something new.”

Elsewhere in the address, Obama said that through America’s democracy, he’s managed to address ”the inequality of so much wealth at the top of our society.”

“There’s still enormous problems in our society,” Obama said of America. ”But democracy is the way that we solve them. That’s how we got health care for more of our people. That’s how we made enormous gains in women’s rights and gay rights.”