A welcome highlight of the controversy over BeyJay’s trip to Cuba has been watching media conservatives rail against the US embargo on Cuba like never before.

Geraldo Rivera of FOX News wrote an op-ed calling out the absurdity the travel ban:

Cuba is not Iran. It is 90 miles away, and its 11 million are related to our million and more. I’m sure most were as pleased to see Beyoncé and Jay-Z go to Cuba as they were to see the Cuban people. Tourism is not terrorism. It is the beginning of freedom.

Rivera later schooled the gang over at Fox & Friends on how to make friends and influence the Cuban people:

“We’ve made friends with communist China. We do business with them,” [Rivera] added. “Vietnam – we lost 50,000 soldiers and we have normal relations.”

“What if you had a relative rotting in prison there because they spoke up?” asked Brian Kilmeade.

“But the way to loosen them up is to expose them to freedom,” Rivera shot back.

“With Hollywood stars?” asked Gretchen Carlson incredulously.

“Jay-Z and Beyoncé showed the good life to millions of Cubans who will envy America as a result,” asserted Rivera. “It was a harmless trip and the reaction was way over the top.”

Judge Jeanine Pirro, also of FOX News, dedicated the entire opening of her show to questioning the travel ban and embargo, ultimately calling it a “charade”:

Fifty years later this embargo has accomplished nothing. Wouldn’t American influence and American dollars put us in a more positive light as opposed to the image that Castro has created of Americans? In the end it isn’t so much about that celebrity couple who chose to vacation on that pristine island as it is about trying to make new friends in a world where we could certainly use a few more.

Finally, conservative kingmaker George Will declared on ABC’s This Week that the embargo no longer makes sense (watch at 39:00 mark):

The Cuban embargo may have made a lot of sense during the Cold War. The Cold War is over, and it is hard to think of a policy more firmly refuted by events than the policy of the embargo that was supposed to weaken one of the, it turns out, most durable dictators in the world.

All further proof that calling for the lifting of travel and trade restrictions against Cuba is a bi-partisan issue, and that the Cuba Lobby, which likes to slander anti-embargo advocates as liberal useful idiots and Castro apologists, only represents itself, not conservative values nor the Cuban-American community.

The one perspective on Bey & Jay’s Cuba visit we haven’t heard enough about: everyday Cubans in Havana, courtesy of Michael J. Bustamante.

And the always excellent Tracey Eaton continues tracking down where the USAID money for Cuba goes.

And one more, which illustrates the paradox of licensed travel:

They must also explain how the activities result in “meaningful interaction.” All trips must have a chaperone from the licensed organization, who must also write a report detailing all people-to-people activities during the trip. Attendance and participation at all events — and a grueling schedule — is mandatory for travelers. All this is meant to create as light a “tourism” footprint as possible, but in addition to the difficulties of legislating meaningful interaction, this elaborate system operates in a reality where, particularly in Cuba, culture is never far from politics.

If there’s something made clear and obvious after the much ballyhooed trip of Jay and Bey to Cuba, is the absurdity of licensed travel. It’s time to get rid of it, and open travel for any American citizen who wants to visit.

Opponents say that the travelers have contact with government officials or carefully selected Cubans, and don’t meet with dissidents. Even if we indulge in the fantasy that the Cuban secret police has the resources to carefully control every one of the 90,000 Americans who went last year to the island, the name of the program is “people-to-people”, not “people-to-dissident”. The value is in the interaction between regular people. Teacher to teacher, architect to architect, artist to artist, chef to chef and any other zillion combinations. This idea that every American visiting the island has to bring in a copy of the Declaration of Human Rights and a laptop for a dissident, as nice as that would be, it’s simply not what the program is about.

Besides, I don’t want Beyonce or Jay Z practicing amateur spycraft or diplomacy or any kind of Rodman-in-Korea circus. I want John Kerry to be the one who calls for more reforms from Havana. That’s his job and it can be done. But by keeping the status quo we’re taking diplomacy away from diplomats and pretending it should fall to a couple of singers.

Second, it’s precisely the requirements for a license and a carefully vetted itinerary that guarantees the interaction with government institutions. I don’t agree with everything she says here, but writer Achy Obejas is crystal clear on this. Even if the interaction is not political per se, there’s simply no way to visit a school or arrange security without going through a government institution.

So let’s stop the charade. Let’s have free and open academic, cultural, religious and family travel. No licenses, no red tape, let the specialized agencies do their work without obstructions. And let’s have tourism. What are we afraid of? Yes, some people will go to an all-inclusive resort just like they do in Cancún. But many others will walk around Havana and other cities, talk to regular Cubans, make arrangements for meals at private restaurants, take private taxis and sleep in casas particulares, all the while showing that the “enemy” is not their enemy.

Update: The Latin American Working Group has a petition supporting general licenses for all Cuba travel. It’s a step in the right direction. Sign it here.