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It would have to be ultimately 'ratified' by the people ... but pretty much yes.
75 people in a room will dictate the future of 3.5 million. Awfully democratic right?
Reality Check:
In the world of REAL POLITIKS the future of people is not decided by colonials. We aren't choosing a Miss Universe candiate. The most powerful nation on this planet must decide what they want to do with us, if statehood they should begin to talk clearly. We did our part in the last plebiscite, Statehood won! But why did they IGNORE the results?
Admitting Puerto Rico as a state has to be weighed on the pros and cons, TO THE UNITED STATES , Not ours. What are the pros for the U.S.? Nobody knows. What are the cons? nobody knows either, or lets say they know but don't tell us.
I hardly ever take into account what Puerto Ricans want because they can't get their act together. They want an olympic team, Spanish as a first language, federal transfer payments galore, and no responisbilities to pay taxes. ( Income Tax Credits) After all that is what the statehood party is selling them. In addition there is a fear of being left out in an open sea to be eaten by sharks, however that shouldn't be the concern of tax paying Americans. When are we ever going to grow up and not live under the skirts of "other people!"
In the long run it will be Congress who will have to set the rules for annexation or Independence, if that's what they want. We can vote after the fact, not before. We have to know what Americans expect from each status, however because I believe statehood is not an option for them this will go on and on and on............
Until then all of this is just conversation to have fun with.
And by the way, for those statehooders here, and there are many, How is a Puerto Rican state in the best interests of the United States?
Washington has already defined each option. It's the Populares who turn around and word everything completely different in Spanish to perpetrate their grip on power.
Congress says commonwealth = colony/territory, Populares say ok in English and then in Spanish start babbling about "maximum autonomy in permanent union", "sovereign over all matters not specifically delegated to the Federal government like a state of the Union".
This is straight from the PPD's 2012 party platform
Quote:
The PDP strongly supports the development of the Commonwealth to the highest of autonomy compatible with the principles of permanent union with the United States and American citizenship of Puerto Ricans.
Quote:
The PDP reaffirms the validity of the Commonwealth as an autonomous political body, founded on a pact of union established in 1952, based on the exercise of sovereignty of the people of Puerto Rico, to which is not nor should be subject to the plenary powers of the United States Congress.
How can we resolve the status issue when one party is stuck in lala land and thinks a colony is some sort of super status that combines the best of all options?
It's not that statehood "is not an option" but rather concern over whether it has the necessary level of support since it's sort of a big deal and requires more than 50% support. Congress has stated that they would need closer to 2/3 for any option to be considered.
If we really wanted to just get rid of Puerto Rico we would have done it back in the 1930s and 40s when the independence movement had support greater than single digits.
Congress has stated that they would need closer to 2/3 for any option to be considered.
Will you post where we can read what Congress stated regarding the 2/3's requirement. Was this a position of Congress as a body or an individual congressman or possibly a committee?
Will you post where we can read what Congress stated regarding the 2/3's requirement. Was this a position of Congress as a body or an individual congressman or possibly a committee?
Thx
It's not an official "rule" but various members of Congress and President Obama have said that "50% +1" would probably not be enough for statehood and other members of Congress have also said that "independence would require a very large majority".
Since statehood is permanent, they want to make sure that a supermajority of Puerto Ricans want it and not be something that a simple majority want today and not tomorrow.
The problem with annexing Puerto Rico is that one generation might be gung-ho for it and another might be furious at what the previous generation did. Many statehooders will say, "Tough luck", but that's not as simple as it sounds.
Taking Hawaii and Alaska as models is also simplistic. Both territories were never populated by nationalistic prone majorities who were culturally different from the mainland. In both cases the native population was small and the territories were populated by assimilated immigrants or mainlanders, all speaking English. Check out Hawaii Five O and see how many native Hawaiians speaking Hawaiian there are?
Puerto Rico is more like Quebec, Catalonia , Flemish Belgium or even Scotland, which now demands independence from Britain. This is not like Texas , whose so called independence movement is the laughing stock of the nation. Scottish independence has solid majorities and will now move on to almost full autonomy.
To Compare Texas regionalism with nationalism is a long stretch.
Some here will say, but Independence for Puerto Rico has no support. Yes that's right, but back in 1952 it was the second party competing with a nationalistic PPD. When the island was bombarded with welfare in the 70' s statehood sentiment took off. Who in their right mind wanted to kill the goose that layed the golden eggs?
Then how do we notice Puerto Rican nationalist feelings?
Just one simple example:
Check out when two teams play at the Olympics. Puerto Rico does not identify with the U.S. teams as Texans would.
Puerto Ricans get goose bumps when singing La Borique~na. The star Spangled Banner is respected but nothing more.
This dormant nationalism is what scares Americans, I don't blame them. Statehooders want to stamp it out, starting with olympic team feelings, and language, disguising it as bilingualism. But its not that simple.
Did someone say QUEBEC?
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