Ask a stupid question …

That’s what NBC’s Brian Williams did on the subject of Cuba in that Republican presidential primary debate Monday evening.

Here’s what Williams asked Mitt Romney:

What Romney should have said is, “Why the heck would the Cubans want to come here when the man who’s been oppressing them for half a century just died? I just wish I could go join the celebration in the streets.”

What he did say was forgettable. But Newt Gingrich promptly jumped in with an answer every bit as stupid as the question. He proposed to do the one thing that would keep Castro’s brother Raul in power. Gingrich proposed “using every asset available to the United States, including appropriate covert operations” to get regime change.

It is exactly that sort of ineffectual threat that has kept the Castros in power all these years. There’s a reason Castro shot down that “Brothers to the Rescue” plane at the exact moment relations between the U.S. and Cuba were improving. He needed the threat of American attacks to keep his police state in operation.

If Gingrich was dumb, Rick Santorum was even dumber. He said he’d keep sanctions in place even after both Castros were gone:

Just who is the “they” in question here? If Santorum knew the first thing about the way the communist system works, he would realize that the people themselves have no power to make the sort of bargain he proposes. The Communist Party elite holds all the power. When Santorum uses the wording “you’ve gotten rid of the tyrants” he shows he has not the slightest inkling that the “you” he’d be negotiating with is made up of the very “tyrants” he’s denouncing.

Only Ron Paul had a sensible answer:

Paul is exactly right, and I say that as someone who has studied Latin-American communism in both Cuba and Nicaragua. The reason the Sandinista Marxists could not maintain their hold during the 1980s is precisely because they couldn’t keep foreigners out – or their own people in. Anyone who drove from Nicaragua to Costa Rica in those days, as I did in 1987, would witness on one side of the border a military state rivaling East Germany’s with shortages of every conceivable consumer item. On the other side was a peaceful, prosperous state with stores overflowing with consumer goods.

As for Cuba, the people there have no way of comparing it to other countries for the simple reason that they can’t leave. But if we were to flood the place with American tourists, the regime simply couldn’t hold onto power. And believe me, people would flood in. Cuba is five times more fun than Florida, assuming of course you’ve got hard currency to spend.

And of course, anti-Castro Cubans could flood in as well. Castro himself never could have taken power without all the help he got from naïve Americans. Well, that works both ways. The island would be overrun with Americans who would be asking why the Cubans don’t have the same rights and privileges that we have.

The old-fashioned single-party state would survive for a while, but the elite would soon be corrupted by capitalism. Money talks, especially in Spanish. The Latin-Americans have a natural affinity for starting small businesses. Even now, many illegally open their homes to tourists as bed-and-breakfasts. The nice old couple I stayed with were glad to collect some hard currency in exchange for their spare room and a chicken dinner I still recall with great fondness.

Once all those small businesses spring up and the economy is open, just what is left of the Communist Party? During the darkest days of the regime, money was effectively outlawed. The people all worked for the government and got rations in return. Without that sort of control, the role of the party has to wither and die, in the exact manner Marx predicted for capitalism.

Only Ron Paul has confidence that capitalism will prevail. That should tell you all you need to know about the people running for president in the Republican Party these days.