Havana Loco

President Obama plans to ease Cuba travel rules this week. His intent is to move the ball an inch or two toward rapprochement with the isolated communist regime. Placed into historical perspective, we have been stuck on our own 20-yardline for nearly half a century policy-wise, despite a carrot and stick approach that has mostly been stick.

Thinking that we probably ought to change up the playbook, Obama wants to try something new. You know, something that might actually work. Predictably, the dying (but still influential) clot of conservative Cuban-American expatriates in Florida howled at the move. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, condemned the White House action as “unthinkable.”

In a statement, Rubio said:

“I strongly oppose any new changes that weaken U.S. policy towards Cuba. I was opposed to the changes that have already been made by this administration and I oppose these new changes. I believe that what does need to change are the Cuban regime’s repressive policies towards the independent press and labor unions, its imprisonment of political prisoners and constant harassment of citizens with dissenting views, and its refusal to allow free multi-party elections.”

Rubio is wrong to oppose Obama’s approach but right about Cuba’s need to move toward democracy – or at least emulate China’s economic example. The trouble is our 45-year-old policy of isolating this island nation has utterly failed to nudge it toward moderation in any meaningful way.

Once upon a time, when the Soviet-enabled Fidel Castro government posed a genuine national security threat, this policy made more sense. Those days are long past. Today, the regime is as toothless and wobbly as the wheelchair brigade of expats in South Florida who oppose any form of rapprochement. Think what would happen if we normalized relations and allowed US businesses to pour in. Buried under an avalanche of McDonalds, Starbucks, Home Depots, Chevys and iPhones, the regime would probably fall in a week.