Posted on 07/20/2010 6:53:08 AM PDT by cll
A Republican governor — a very Republican governor — has an idea for solving one of his party’s conundrums. The party should listen to Luis Fortuno, the Reaganite who resides in Puerto Rico’s executive mansion.
Conservatives need a strategy for addressing the immigration issue without alienating America’s largest and most rapidly growing minority. Conservatives believe the Southern border must be secured before there can be “comprehensive” immigration reform that resolves the status of the 11 million illegal immigrants. But this policy risks making Republicans seem hostile to Hispanics.
Fortuno wants Republicans to couple insistence on border enforcement with support for Puerto Rican statehood. This, he says, would resonate deeply among Hispanics nationwide. His premise is that many factors — particularly, the Telemundo and Univision television channels — have created a common consciousness among Hispanics in America.
How many know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens? That every president since Truman has affirmed Puerto Rico’s right to opt for independence or statehood? That every Republican platform since 1968 has endorsed Puerto Rico’s right to choose statehood? That Ronald Reagan, announcing his candidacy in 1979, said, “I favor statehood for Puerto Rico”?
Fortuno supports H.R. 2499 (also supported by such House conservatives as Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence and former Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling), which would conduct a plebiscite on the island’s current status. If a majority favors this status, the question could be asked again in eight years. If a majority votes for change, a second plebiscite would offer a choice among the current status, independence, “sovereignty in association with the United States” and statehood.
Puerto Rico, which is only half as far from Florida as Hawaii is from California, is about the size of Connecticut. Its population is larger than the populations of 24 states. There are, however, problems.
Puerto Rico’s per-capita income ($14,905) is only 50 percent of that of the poorest state (Mississippi, $30,103) and 27 percent of the richest (Connecticut, $54,397). The fact that Puerto Ricans are at home in American society does not entail the conclusion that the commonwealth, a distinct cultural and linguistic entity (most on the island do not speak English), belongs in the federal union. Currently Puerto Ricans pay federal income taxes only on income from off the island.
Fortuno says the present system has failed to prevent the income disparity with the mainland from widening. But America does not want lukewarm citizens. In three referendums (1967, 1993, 1998), Puerto Ricans favored the status quo — an unincorporated territory — over statehood. In 1998, the vote was 50.4 percent to 46.5 percent. In the 1950s, the last time the federal union was enlarged, Hawaiians and Alaskans overwhelmingly supported statehood.
Many Republicans suspect that congressional Democrats support statehood for the same reason they want to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state — to get two more senators (and in Puerto Rico’s case, perhaps six members of Congress). Such Republicans mistakenly assume that the island’s population of 4 million has the same Democratic disposition as the 4.2 million Puerto Ricans in the Bronx and elsewhere on the mainland.
Fortuno disagrees, noting that while Republicans on the mainland were losing in 2008, he was elected in the island’s biggest landslide in 44 years. The party he leads won more than two-thirds of the seats in both houses of the legislature and three-fifths of the mayorships, including that of San Juan. Fortuno, who calls himself a “values candidate” and goes to Catholic services almost every day, says Puerto Ricans are culturally conservative — 78 percent are anti-abortion, 91 percent oppose same-sex marriage, and 30 percent of the 85 percent who are Christian are evangelicals. A majority supports his agenda, which includes tax and spending cuts, trimming 16,000 from public payrolls to begin eliminating the deficit that was 45 percent the size of the budget.
Fortuno, 49, who has degrees from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the University of Virginia’s law school, looks half his age. “Republicans,” he says, “cannot continue to oppose every Hispanic issue.” If he is correct that Puerto Rican statehood is, or can become, such an issue, Republicans should hear him out.
The United States acquired Puerto Rico 112 years ago in the testosterone spill called the Spanish-American War. Before another century passes, perhaps Puerto Ricans’ ambivalence about their somewhat ambiguous status can be rectified to the advantage of Republicans.
Does anyone know where the statehood issue stands? I seem to recall some kind of recent effort by the Democrats to make them a state.
DOA U.S. Senate.
I have to say this:
Puerto Ricans should not be confused with illegals. When I was there, I was surprised how conservative that they are.
The libs toy with this island at their peril.
Good.
I am sorry....but my brothers PR inlaws and his wife, would want to know when they were going to get all the free stuff they are entitled to from the govt.
not that that is a scientific survey, but except for one PR friend at work who is a rabid conservative...much more than 50%, that I know of want their pound of flesh....
no....Puerto Rico, like Hawaii, would need an ‘Alaska’ to enter as a state at the same time to even out the Senator situation....and there ain’t no more ‘Alaskas’ out there, so NO STATEHOOD FOR PUERTO RICO!
“In my opinion, Congress has no existence and can exercise no authority outside of the Constitution. Still less is it true that Congress can deal with new territories just as other nations have done or may do with their new territories. This nation is under the control of a written constitution, the supreme law of the land and the only source of the powers which our government, or any branch or officer of it, may exert at any time or at any place. Monarchical and despotic governments, unrestrained by written constitutions, may do with newly acquired territories what this government may not do consistently with our fundamental law. To say otherwise is to concede that Congress may, by action taken outside of the Constitution, engraft upon our republican institutions a colonial system such as exists under monarchical governments. Surely such a result was never contemplated by the fathers of the Constitution. If that instrument had contained a word suggesting the possibility of a result of that character it would never have been adopted by the people of the United States. The idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the earth, by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces,—the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to them,—is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius, as well as with the words, of the Constitution.” - Justice John Harlan, dissenting in the Insular Cases, 1901
GFY George Will and all you other Progressive Repub Ruling Class scum.
No deal. Most would get a $5,657 "earned income tax credit" yearly cash gift, welfare, enough free food to feed a cow, free cell phones, internet, cable TV, subsidized housing, and most would vote to loot the mainland.
A complete croc of sh!t. Puerto Rico will vote about 90% democrap. They are highly suceptible to the free governemtn handout tactic.
“Puerto Rican statehood”
No. And if they want to end their commonwealth status it is alright by me. Let them go independent. I welcome continued good relations with our friends from PR, but not as a state, and preferably not as a commonwealth partner either.
Really? How's that hopey, hopey thing been working out for ya when you read the voting percentages in Hispanic areas over the years?
Now the same gooey allusions are being applied to the PR populace.
"Puerto Rico is fertile ground for GOP". This sentence is propaganda to bolster Obama's recent push for PR statehood. Translated: a couple million more votes for himself and the socialist scum plus amnesty votes plus vote fraud votes to put himself and the radical Dem party over the top in 2012.
Leni
We should also rethink Hawaii as a state and renounce their citizenship. They're a net drain and produce crappy politicians. But making Alaska a state was a good move. Win some, lose some.
When they separate from the U.S. and become a viable and successful country give me a call.
Glenn Beck: Puerto Rican Statehood Ahead?
article & video at:
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/39780/
Island Puerto Ricans differ in many ways from mainland Puerto Ricans, but especially in politics. The facts are:
Puerto Rico Governor: Conservative Republican, devout Roman catholic
Puerto Rico Senate President: Conservative Republican (as is most of his caucus), Evangelical Christian
Puerto Rico House Speaker: Conservative Republican (as is most of her caucus)
Mayors of the two largest cities: Conservative Republicans
From the article:
“Many Republicans suspect that congressional Democrats support statehood for the same reason they want to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state — to get two more senators (and in Puerto Rico’s case, perhaps six members of Congress). Such Republicans mistakenly assume that the island’s population of 4 million has the same Democratic disposition as the 4.2 million Puerto Ricans in the Bronx and elsewhere on the mainland”
Voting against looting your next door neighbors is different than voting against looting the distant rich Uncle Sam.
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