I don’t get the people in Congress and the rest of the country, for that matter, that think its a good idea to continue our current isolationist policies towards Cuba. It actually reminds me of that Far Side cartoon where the kid is trying to get into the school for the gifted by pulling on the door labeled push. Despite all of his efforts, if he keeps doing the same thing he isn’t going to get anywhere.

While I’m not advocating that we throw open the doors to the White House and invite Castro in for tea and cookies, I don’t think trying to use a little more carrot and a little less stick wouldn’t be such a bad idea. To put it simply our current policy is…how do you say…not working. I’d argue that its pretty much as useful as an utter on a bull.

Despite our half-century long program of isolation, the country is still as communist as Castro wants it to be, even though he’s not officially in power anymore. While there have been some small steps towards loosening some economic regulations, the country is still light years away from a representative government allowing for self-determination by the people.

Now, you may ask how I know that a change in policy will work to improve things in Cuba. I don’t. But I do know that our policy over the last 50 years has failed. If we try something different and it doesn’t work, we’re really no worse off than we were with the last set of policies. The basic point is that we’re currently continuing to do the exact same thing expecting a different result, and that, my friends, is one definition of crazy.