Puerto Rico- Our 51st State?

[Save_Ferris]

Rather surprised that there hasn't been a thread on this. As some of you may know, the main reason Romney won the Puerto Rico primary as opposed to Santorum is because Santorum said this:

(CNN) – Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on Thursday defended a condition he said Puerto Rico must meet to be eligible for statehood: "English needs to be the principal language."

Campaigning in the territory ahead of their Sunday primary, Santorum had on Wednesday said, "There are other states with more than one language, like Hawaii, but to be a state of the United States, English must be the principal language."

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Speaking to CNN's National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta on Thursday, he stood by his comments.

"Obviously Spanish will be spoken here on the island. But this needs to be a bilingual country not just a Spanish speaking country," he said. "Right now it is overwhelmingly Spanish speaking but it needs to have in order for it to integrate into American society, English has to be a language that is spoken here also and spoken universally."

Romney stakes opposition to Santorum over language issue

Puerto Rico designates both English and Spanish as official languages. There is no federal law stipulating an official language, but 31 states have adopted measures and Congress has included adoption of English as a requirement for statehood in previous cases.

Voters will be surveyed on their interest in statehood in a November referendum.

Asked by a reporter if the language issue would be a deal breaker, Santorum said he considers the matter important.

"I think that would be a condition," he said. "I think it's important."

The territory's delegate to Congress, Democrat Pedro Pierluisi, said on CNN's Starting Point Thursday that, "Santorum's view is narrow and a limiting view of what America is all about."

"English is the predominant language in the U.S. and will continue to be so, whether Puerto Rico becomes a state or not," Pierluisi added.

One of Santorum's delegates withdrew his support for Santorum over the matter, according to a local newspaper report. The Vocero paper reported that Hector Perez said he was no longer committed to Santorum. The party chair told the paper that one of the alternate delegates submitted by Santorum's campaign would fill the spot.

Puerto Rico holds a Republican primary on Sunday to allocate 20 of the territory's 23 delegates. Delegates will be distributed proportionally among candidates earning over 15% of the vote unless one candidate wins over 50%. In that case, he will receive all 20 delegates.

Of course, there was backlash, and Romney, never hesitant to side with the majority, said:

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) - Minutes after his plane touched down on a Puerto Rican airport tarmac, Mitt Romney said he would not require the territory to make English its official language as a requirement for statehood.

"I don't have preconditions that I would impose" if Puerto Ricans voted to become the nation's 51st state, Romney told members of the media Friday, addressing the issue for the first time in person. English and Spanish are already the dual official languages on the island.

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Romney's position on preconditions puts him at odds with his rival, former Sen. Rick Santorum, who said early this week Puerto Rico would need to adopt English as its official language before being eligible for statehood.

Santorum's comment was met with outrage from some locals, and Romney's campaign seized on the issue as a key difference between the White House hopefuls. Santorum refined his position on Wednesday, saying that "English needs to be the principal language" for the territory to be considered for statehood.

Romney has not argued for similar conditions on statehood. While he has previously said English should be the official language of the United States government, he he has said states should determine their policies. Romney addressed the language issue at a CNN debate in Jacksonville, Florida.

"I believe English should be the official language of the United States, as it is," Romney said at the debate, in January. "I also believe that in our schools, we should teach kids in English."

But Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul responded: "Governor Romney supports making English the official language of the United States government. This should have no impact on Puerto Rico's statehood effort, English has been an official language of Puerto Rico for over 100 years."

Regardless, in a tweet, a spokesman for Santorum's campaign accused Romney of flip-flopping and pandering to Puerto Ricans ahead of its Sunday primary.

Santorum spokesman Matt Beynon tweeted: "So Romney once supported English as national language, then goes to Puerto Rico and says no language req on statehood. #FlipFlop? #Pander?"

His communications director, Hogan Gidley, noted broad support for English as the nation's official language, and said in an email to reporters, "How can Romney say he supports English as the official language of America and not believe Puerto Rico should speak English? If he'll spend the whole election being untruthful about his positions – it makes you wonder what else he's being untruthful about."

Residents will vote on proposed statehood later this year. Romney, who is backed by the territory's governor, Luis Fortuno, said he would support an effort by Puerto Ricans to become a state.

Romney was also asked Friday about his criticism of Puerto Rican Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, which has roiled some Puerto Rican voters.

"In looking at Justice Sotomayor, my view was that her philosophy is quite different than my own, and that's the reason why I would not support her as a justice for the Supreme Court," Romney said. "Had I been in the Senate - I was not in the Senate - I would be happy to have a justice of Puerto Rican descent or a Puerto Rican individual on the Supreme Court, but they would have to share my judicial philosophy. That comes first."

Which raises and interesting point. Should Puerto Rico be a state? Sure, it would be much different from all other states (in terms of language and GDP per capita), but it has a few million people and gives a voice to another part of America. I think that alone justifies its statehood, but what do you guys think?

 

[downtown]

It depends entirely on what citizens of PR want. Statehood has been voted on a few times and its always been turned down. If the people there want it, then it's something we can look at.

 

[Takhisis]

Do the Puerto Ricans want to become a state?
Assuming they don't, does the U.S. Constitution and legal system allow for a non-state territory to be forced into becoming a state?
What's right/wrong with the current situation?
Assuming they do, can they be rejected by the other states?
Do they have to become a state?

Romney pandering to te majority doesn't surprise me, Santorum being a jerk doesn't either. But then, they're both Republicans. One day they'll fuse together and give us the Republican über-candidate.

 

[kramerfan86]

If they choose to become a state in one of their referendums I see no reason to force English on them, that is just foolishness. The US should support whatever action Puerto Rico chooses, no strings or requirements attached.

 

[Arwon]

There's fairly regular statehood votes. Maybe one will pass eventually. It should depend entirely on the voters' will.

I for one hope they do, just to troll the English Only set.

 

[mangxema]

Do the Puerto Ricans want to become a state?

IIRC, it's mixed. I think it's about half and half.

Assuming they don't, does the U.S. Constitution and legal system allow for a non-state territory to be forced into becoming a state?

Isn't that sort of what happened with Hawaii? I'm not a big history buff, but I got the feeling that it was less than voluntary.

Assuming they do, can they be rejected by the other states?

I have a feeling if this were possible, it would have come up a lot during the slavery era.

What's right/wrong with the current situation?
Do they have to become a state?

I don't know what the commonwealth status entails, but it seems like they're getting a pretty good deal. It may not be in our best interest to keep them a commonwealth, but to either absorb them or grant them full independence. I really don't know.

 

[kramerfan86]

I think Hawaii becoming a territory was less than voluntary, Im not sure becoming a state was quite as forced. Have no idea for sure though, not real "up to date" on Hawaiian history

 

[Mr. Dictator]

If they vote to become a state, we can take them as they are, or we can let them go to be independent. I don't see why they should be kept in territorial limbo.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Why wouldn't they want to become a state? Is there a downside?

 

[bombshoo]

Why wouldn't they want to become a state? Is there a downside?

They lose their Olympic team?

 

[kramerfan86]

Why wouldn't they want to become a state? Is there a downside?

Taxes kick in then, as of now they dont pay t axes but are still US citizens. Have no official voice in congress and cant vote for president though is the downside.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Taxes kick in then, as of now they dont pay t axes but are still US citizens. Have no official voice in congress and cant vote for president though is the downside.

They don't pay taxes? Why are we even holding on to them?

 

[kramerfan86]

They don't pay taxes? Why are we even holding on to them?

Because we believe in giving them the right to self determination. They pay "state" taxes, but no federal ones I believe. Honestly in theory the non-ability to participate in federal government was supposed to be a big enough penalty that people would trip over themselves to become a state, but seeing as how broken the system it getting to choose bad option A or bad option B isnt the carrot they had hoped for.

 

[Bugfatty300]

One downside of not being a state is that Puerto Ricans and their government had virtually no say in the US Navy's live fire exercises in their territory. Though they managed to stop it with incessant protests and trespassing.

 

[azzaman333]

It should only be a state if two other states are combined. 51 states would be too confusing for the majority of the American population.

 

[kramerfan86]

One downside of not being a state is that Puerto Ricans and their government had virtually no say in the US Navy's live fire exercises in their territory. Though they managed to stop it with incessant protests and trespassing.

Well let's be frank, if the US really wanted to bully a state into doing live fire exercises in it the state really couldnt stop it. Their congressional delegation could try, but at the end of the day they really couldnt stop it if the US absolutely wanted it

 

[Save_Ferris]

It should only be a state if two other states are combined. 51 states would be too confusing for the majority of the American population.

As much as that was a stereotyping of Americans, it would be better to stick with a round number. Do we really need two Dakotas?

 

[Dachs]

Hell, I think the entire rest of the world needs to be brought into the American Union. Puerto Rico should be a no-brainer, regardless of the language they speak there.

 

[Antilogic]

The Puerto Ricans pay all taxes except federal income taxes. They pay local taxes, duties, tariffs, payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, etc. The most recent polls on statehood in Puerto Rico indicate roughly 50% of the citizens prefer statehood, roughly 40% favor the status-quo commonwealth, and less than 10% favor independence. Their three major political parties are organized around support for each of these positions. Over the last century, the percentage favoring statehood has grown, but not enough to be pushed over the edge.

It doesn't help that the Puerto Ricans are generally off-put by the modern far-right types that dominate the mainland American Republican party and the pro-statehood party tends to be the more jingoistic, conservative-type of party.



Regarding the number of states... insisting on 50 is effing stupid, and I can't take anyone seriously who suggests that. If I were in charge, I would break up California, Texas, Florida, and New York, add Puerto Rico, and add the Pacific territories. So I'd like to see 56 states, minimum. Reverse that stupid 435-max limit in the House of Representatives too to make the proportional representation more proportional, another 261 would get us to 1 representative per 450k. Has the advantage of not too ambitious (1 rep./300k would require an extra 608 representatives).

 

[Hygro]

Santorum's a dolt. "Integrate into American society". Since Puerto Ricans are fully American, and since they are part of society, what kind of integration does Santorum not see? You might as well say people from any state aren't integrated just because they have cultural differences.