Where do you stand on the issue of statehood for Puerto Rico?I do not have a fire in my belly over the issue one way or the other. I am content to let the Puerto Ricans decide whether they prefer commonwealth status to statehood. Independence is all right with me, too.
On a personal level, f Puerto Rico became a state, it would become solidly democrat, so there would be at least one more Democrat in the House and two in the Senate, but that is a personal gripe. I am not selfish enough to call that a reason to keep the island a commonwealth if they choose otherwise.
If I were a Puerto Rican, however, I would not choose statehood. They would lose a lot of their sovereignty. I am never a big advocate of that sort of thing, which is why I do not think independence would be a big problem for the United States, either. Puerto Rican has been controlled by foreign powers for nearly 500 years. I imagine the people would find independence paralyzing.
It does not matter. As a commonwealth, Puerto Rico has the best of both worlds. It has most every advantage of being associated with the United States without being entangled with national issues. Their cost of living is reasonable, they do not have to engage in the English v. Spanish as official language debate, and they can compete internationally as their own nation in sports, beauty pageants, etc, rather than be swallowed up by the United States. Puerto Ricans would be foolish to give that up. The fact the most recent poll says 695 of Puerto Ricans want to stay a commonwealth proves they understand that.
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