CRANKY CONSERVATIVES often dismiss symbolic pro-democracy legislation as so much claptrap. Of course everyone supports the flowering of liberty on foreign soil, they insist. Of course everyone wants to nourish oases of civil society in the deserts of despotism. So why bother with all these vacuous “Yay for freedom” acts? Aren’t they kinda like resolving, “We love our Moms”? Shouldn’t it go without saying that every member of Congress favors democrats over dictators?

Yes, it should. But then there’s Cuba. To endorse the sociopolitical spadework of Cuban democrats is, of course, to rebuke Fidel Castro. And that, apparently, is too much for a handful of House Democrats–and one Republican–to stomach.