Let’s make Puerto Rico a State in our Union. It’s long overdue.
Fellow Americans! This includes the people of Puerto Rico including those currently living on the island, and, sadly, unlike Puerto Ricans who live in a US state, cannot vote for their President and Vice-President. We are long overdue to make Puerto Rico a new state in our old Union, or grant it full independence. The island’s status cannot continue to exist in the colonial twilight of legal purgatory. Yesterday in New York City, a comedian at Republican Donald Trump’s big Manhattan campaign rally made a nasty, ugly, and racist joke at Puerto Rico’s expense. The joke immediately antagonized Puerto Ricans everywhere. It angered numerous other Hispanics and Latinos including those who support Trump for President. Democratic candidate for Vice-President Tim Waltz called out the comedian, who in turn derided the Governor of Minnesota for being unable to take a joke. The vile comedian was defensive and concluded his remarks with an immature, stupid, and sexist joke about women’s periods.
An enormous backlash against the Trump-Vance campaign exploded. Many Republicans were embarrassed, disturbed, and criticized the pro-Trump jokester. Campaign insiders were incensed rally organizers did not properly vet the comedian. Furthermore, Trump’s Manhattan rally was noteworthy for the violence and hatred in Republican campaign rhetoric. Indeed, many considered it as having the most violent rhetoric of any major campaign rally. Another consequence is the hostile, hateful jokes shined a spotlight on the festering identity issues of Puerto Rico.
All Puerto Ricans are Americans. All Puerto Ricans are American citizens. All Puerto Ricans who live in any of the 50 US states and in the District of Columbia can vote in Federal elections including for candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President provided they, like any US citizen, registered to vote. None of the Americans living in Puerto Rico can vote for those top US positions unless they are visitors there who are registered elsewhere.
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, such as the states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Massachusetts are commonwealths. Within the United States of America, there isn’t any technical distinction for a commonwealth. There isn’t any difference between a commonwealth state and any other state in the Union. “Commonwealth” is ultimately derived from an old Latin term for a republic, and the USA is a constitutional union of democratic republics and its territories. Puerto Rico is technically an unincorporated territory within the USA.
Originally the island later call Puerto Rico was inhabited by different Native American tribes organized into chiefdoms. They were conquered and colonized by the Spanish Empire. Europeans, mostly Spaniards, moved there and imported Black captives from Sub-Saharan Africa as chattel slaves. Despite wars between European empires along with anti-Spanish rebellions, Puerto Rico remained part of the Spanish Empire until conquered by the United States in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans became American citizens in 1917. There were several pro-nationalist revolts and assassination attempts by pro-independence Puerto Ricans in 1950-54. They were crushed.
Since then various referendums and votes have occurred as Puerto Rico became more tightly integrated into the American economy and with more Puerto Rican politicians supporting statehood within the Union. Over the decades the push for independence has subsided. Remaining in limbo as a territory is no longer viable nor desirable.
The people of Puerto Rico must choose: Independence or Statehood? Both have their pros and cons, and for a number of reasons the pros far outweigh the cons. Pro-statehood reasons include increased integration with the rest of the United States, greater economic benefits and financial opportunities, widespread recognition, better environmental protection, superior energy, improved healthcare, ongoing defense by the U.S. military, improved intelligence and police support from Federal organizations from the FBI and the CIA to Federal Marshals, enhanced civil rights and legal protections, and having a voice as new Federal taxpayers, among others. What full independence with decoupling from the USA offers is much, much less including poor economic viability, fewer financial opportunities, increased poverty, little real defense, and a identity crisis for Puerto Ricans living in the other 50 states. The people have a right, however, to such independence if they vote for it, and the rest of America must let them go with good will and encouragement.
It is my personal opinion the people of Puerto Rico will be better off with full statehood within the USA and the interdependence that comes with it. It is my hope they choose this path. And it’s the vote of the islanders, the will of the Puerto Rican people, not me and my wishes.
The main obstacle to full statehood is the current version of the Republican Party with its hateful, racist, sexist, homophobic rhetoric, and tendencies towards inciting violence. Republicans in general oppose statehood for Puerto Rico as many of the islanders would likely vote for Democratic Party candidates. The Republicans seem to want Puerto Rico to drift along the edges of America as a dependent colony where GOP candidates throw rolls of paper towels and toilet paper into the crowd when the energy grid collapses in a hurricane as Donald Trump the Usurper once did.
There are other similar lingering issues from American history to resolve as well. These include statehood for the District of Columbia as the State of Douglass, territorial issues with various Pacific island entities such as Guam and the Marshall Islands, status and reparations issues with Native American tribes, reparations issues with Americans who are the descendants of African and African-American chattel slaves, and the division of some of the larger 50 states into smaller states.
The current Trump-Vance campaign has for now, however, lit up Puerto Rican Americans. It’s long overdue to become a state within the USA. Perhaps Democrats can handle a handful of states being subdivided into a few more states in exchange for Republicans supporting statehood for Puerto Rico, Guam, and Columbia/Douglass. Get rid of population requirements to become a state, too. In an age of demographic change with declining birthrates, climate migration, and immigrants seeking refuge, population requirements are archaic. After all, a state may theoretically regress in population to be relabeled a territory, a new what-if.
Now, if you are registered to vote but haven’t yet done so, get in action and go vote. Vote while you still can! As Trump himself once declared in his usual muddy and muddled, incoherent word salads, vote for him this one time so it’ll get fixed, once he’s President again, he’ll fix it, whatever it is, and folks won’t have to vote anymore.
William Dudley Bass
Monday 28 October 2024
Shoreline/Seattle, Washington
USA
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