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TIME Ideas politics Rand Paul: Cuba Isolationists Just Dont Get It T.J. KirkpatrickGetty Images; Rogelio V. Solis.AP

Paul is the junior U.S. Senator for Kentucky.

I grew up in a family that despised, not only communism, but collectivism, socialism and any ism that deprived the individual of his or her natural rights.

As a kid, I listened to the stories of an old Ukrainian fisherman who talked of fighting the Bolsheviks. More times than I can remember, Ive heard horror stories of those who fled Castros Cuba. I ran for office to fight for the individual and against statism of any kind anywhere and yet I think a policy of isolationism toward Cuba is misplaced and hasnt worked.

I support engagement, diplomacy, and trade with Cuba, China, Vietnam, and many countries with less than stellar human rights records, because I believe that once enslaved people taste freedom and see the products of capitalism they will become hungry for freedom themselves.

President George W. Bush wrote that trade creates the habits of freedom, and trade provides the seeds of freedom that begin to create the expectations of democracy. Once trade begins it is hard to hide the amazing products of capitalism. The Soviets used to produce documentaries depicting poverty in America but it backfired when Russian viewers noticed that even in the poorest of circumstances you could still see televisions flickering in the windows. Once trade is enhanced with Cuba, it will be impossible to hide the bounty that freedom provides.

The supporters of the embargo against Cuba speak with heated passion but fall strangely silent when asked how trade with Cuba is so different than trade with Russia or China or Vietnam.

It is an inconsistent and incoherent position to support trade with other communist countries, but not communist Cuba.

Even the supporters of the embargo agree that it has not worked. A policy of isolationism with Cuba and engagement with China and Vietnam does not make any sense. Communism cant survive the captivating allure of capitalism. Lets overwhelm the Castro regime with iPhones, iPads, American cars, and American ingenuity.

My familys opposition to communism was so fierce that when Nixon said the U.S. would trade with Red China our response was heated and passionately opposed. But over time my family and many conservatives came to believe that trade was better than war and more effective. While Chinas human rights record leaves much to be desired, our engagement and trade has without question helped to open Chinese society.

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Rand Paul: Cuba Isolationists Just Dont Get It

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THE ULTIMATE idiocy of the stay-the-course-in-Cuba crowd was displayed Wednesday on CNN.

Asked why she so vehemently opposes any initiative to normalize relations with Cuba, CNN commentator Ana Navarro gave us this gem:

"For no other reason than the calendar," she said. "We're so close, 55 years closer, and now [Obama] does this."

Her point, and the misguided point of our irrational, inconsistent, duplicitous and counterproductive Cuban policy for the last five decades, is that our breakthrough is just a body bag away. With Fidel about to die, she said, and Raul's state funeral to follow shortly thereafter, Cuba will cast off communism and embrace democracy.

But common Cubans have never embraced communism. Communism is a paternalistic, elitist ideology imposed by dictators. Like the masses in every communist country since the Bolsheviks turned out the czar, most Cubans have never been party members or true believers.

But to believe that Castro's death will make us, by default, the choice of Cuba's people ignores our long history of indifference to their plight.

Where were we when Sgt. Fulgencio Batista promoted himself to commander-in-chief and divided Cuba up among his friends and family? Today, we offer democracy, albeit from afar. But democracy was a nonstarter in U.S. policy toward Cuba back then.

We want the Cubans to remember our words and forget our deeds. We want them to believe our platitudes about justice and ignore the fact that we use part of their island to imprison people without trials and to violate the international conventions against torture that we authored. That's a contradiction that can't be explained from afar.

Can we make them forget the past and buy the promise?

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Why normalizing relations with Cuba is long overdue

Freedom vs communism
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By: Odal Rune

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Freedom vs communism - Video

ST. LOUIS (KTVI) President Obamas move to lift some U.S. restrictions against Cuba is receiving mixed reactions locally.

St. Louis Congressman Lacy Clay praised the presidents actions calling them long overdue. But Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt criticized the decision as one that will encourage our adversaries.

A St. Louis resident of Cuban heritage fears the Obama administration move will end up enhancing the Castro regime.

Jorge Riopedre, an executive with a not-for-profit health clinic, is the son of Cuban refugees who were forced to flee Cuba in the early nineteen sixties because of actions by the Communists who took over the island nation.

My mother had to flee for her life because of religious persecution. My father and his family were at gunpoint removed from the land that had been theirs for five, six generations, Riopedre explained.

His parents succeeded eventually in earning advanced college degrees and building a good life in Florida. But family relatives who remained in Cuba are trapped in poverty.

The Cuban government controls every aspect of your life, he said noting there is free education but, the government then chooses what your profession is. Riopedre said, on every block of every town there is a person in charge of the defense of the revolution who reports back to the government on what the activities are of the people who live there.

Riopedre said he appreciates President Obamas desire to normalize relations but if the end game is that it will strengthen the Castro government without really changing things for the United States then Im not sure thats the way to go.

He thinks the U.S. would be better to wait until Fidel and Raul Castro die and try to influence the next Cuban government. What keeps the Cuban people downtrodden and oppressed is the Castro government not the United States embargo.

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Local Cuban-American says communism is the problem not U.S. embargo