Do politicians delude themselves so much as to believe their own propaganda?

Cuba

MUCH AS EVERY American politician attempts to position themselves as the true scion of the Spirit of '76, Cuban politicians promoted themselves as the authentic voice of the Revolution of 1933, the year that four successive presidents were deposed beginning with Gerardo Machado in August of that year. Inasmuch as Fulgencio Batista orchestrated that revolution, he could not be blamed for promoting himself as its “first chief”. However, that didn't stop others from pretending to that throne.

Ramón Grau San Martín (click to enlarge)

Ramón Grau San Martín also had a legitimate claim to the Spirit of the Revolution of 1933. He had led the student protesters until arrested, jailed, and later exiled in 1931. Grau and his associates formed the Auténtico party upon his return to the island. (It doesn't take a linguist to interpret “Auténtico” and infer the implications of the name.) The Auténticos stressed economic nationalism, limitations on foreign property owners, and castigated financial imperialism. They called for immediate national action to regain economic control of the country. Grau condemned American support of the post-Machado regimes and, more importantly, for the Welles mission, which allegedly destroyed the revolutionary goal of Cuba for Cubans. Inasmuch as Batista relied heavily on American backing, it's easy to see that there would be bad blood between the two men. However, Batista allowed the Auténticos to survive during the years of 1940 to 1944 while he was president. 

Batista seemed to feel assured of reelection. He dismissed the Auténticos as inconsequential while Grau roamed the island, calling for an end to Batista's regime and an end to administrative corruption as well as fulfillment of the promise of agrarian reform. Apparently Grau's message resonated with the islanders and Batista's handpicked successor, Carlos Saladrigas Zayas, lost the 1944 elections to Grau.

Batista was stupefied. He departed Cuba for self-imposed exile in America claiming that he no longer felt safe on the island. He would spend the next eight years luxuriating at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and a home in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was well financed having emptied the coffers of the government in Havana prior to Grau's inauguration.