The topic du jour this morning was, of course, the news that Fidel Castro is stepping down after decades of rule, followed by the White House’s affirmation that our country’s nearly half-century-old embargo against Cuba will not be relaxed anytime soon, regardless of which Castro is running the show over there.

So, here’s the thing I’ve been wondering all day: is there anyone out there in InternetLand who can explain to me why our country is so unrelenting on this damn-fool embargo? Anyone at all? Really, what purpose does it serve here in the year 2008? Maybe it made sense during JFK’s administration, when the Soviet Union was trying to use Cuba as a proxy against us, and everyone was terrified of communists infiltrating our borders from nearby nations. But the USSR is long gone, and our decades-long effort to keep the island nation isolated have utterly failed to effect any change within Cuba. The communists remain firmly in power and the Cuban people seem reasonably content with that state of affairs. So what’s the point of maintaining the embargo now?

It can’t be because Cuba is governed by communists, not when you consider that our biggest trade partner — China — is also the largest communist nation on the planet. Saying that we’re offended by Cuban human-rights abuses doesn’t wash either; refer again to our good buddies the Chinese, who are not known for their humanity toward their fellow citizens. Nor, for that matter, are the Saudis, some more good friends of America, nor a dozen or so other nations we have no trouble interacting with. Surely we’re not maintaining the embargo because of some lingering grudge whose details have long been forgotten. Hell, I’ve got shirts in my closet that were made in Vietnam. We lost a war against them, but 35 years later, we’re happily buying stuff from them and sending tourists to snap photos of the old battle sites. If we can make friends with the Vietnamese, what prevents us from doing the same with the Cubans?

The only explanation that makes any sense in my view — and it really doesn’t make all that much sense, except in the most cynical of ways — is that our elected officials feel like they have to kowtow to a very loudmouthed constituency of elderly Cuban expatriates in the electorally significant state of Florida. And you know what? If that’s the case, I think it’s time somebody told all those folks in Miami to just get over themselves already. Fidel Castro spent 46 years thumbing his nose at them, and at the United States in general. And the more we huffed and puffed and demonized him, the more heartily he laughed at us, and the more the Cubans who were still in Cuba loved him for it. Castro won, people. Get used to the idea.

To be honest, this isn’t a topic I really care that much about. I don’t know any Cubans, and as a potential travel destination, that country is quite a ways down my list. But I do dislike it when politicians seem to be acting more from mulish obstinacy and stupid pettiness than logic, and I believe the Cuban embargo is such a case. It seems like we continue it more out of habit than anything, and it just doesn’t make sense to me because it’s not accomplishing anything. If we really want to encourage change in Cuba, as the Bush administration claimed today was our primary goal behind the embargo — if that wasn’t just empty rhetoric intended to justify a non-decision to maintain a comfortable status quo — then nothing will accomplish it as quickly as a flood of American tourists eager to experience the 1950s time capsule of Havana while they enjoy a few mojitos and cigars at Ernest Hemingway’s old house…