Posted on 04/30/2015 8:21:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
‘Puerto Rican citizens — U.S. citizens — ought to have the right to determine whether they want to be a state,” Jeb Bush said this week. But they have had the right to determine that several times, and they seem to have determined the answer: No. The former Florida governor also said he thought statehood was a good idea on the merits, which it plainly is not.
The most recent occasion for Puerto Ricans to weigh in was 2012, when they technically did end up voting for statehood — in a ballot process that would make Vladimir Putin blush. Voters were first asked whether they supported Puerto Rico’s current relationship with the U.S., as a commonwealth. They disapproved of their current status, 54–46, a margin that can be in large part explained by the small but non-negligible share of Puerto Ricans who want complete independence. The second question offered three choices for the new status — independence, a new unclear form of “free association,” or statehood — and only 44 percent of all voters chose statehood. But because more than half a million voters skipped the second question entirely, as the effort’s opponents had encouraged, a majority of voters who answered the question picked statehood.
That is the nearest Puerto Ricans have come to asking to be a state, after decades in which the island’s political and business elite, Democrats in Congress, and some Republicans have pushed for the idea. In three previous referenda (1967, 1993, and 1998), statehood was voted down outright.
Contrast this with the process by which Hawaii and Alaska joined the union: Voters in the former gave 94 percent support to statehood in a 1959 referendum, while the people of the latter voted for statehood 58–42 in 1946, and then 83–17 in 1958.
Bush, like some congressmen, says Puerto Rico should have a new up-or-down plebiscite, but even if this would yield a new result, it would be reckless. In any referendum, permanent change of status should hinge on some supermajority level of support, as, say, constitutional amendments do. We do not want ambivalent states.
If Puerto Rico became a state, its economy and culture would be incredible outliers: It is twice as poor as the poorest of the 50 states, and it would of course be the first Spanish-speaking one. Statehood would remove some of the competitive benefits the island currently enjoys — protection of the United States and its laws without paying income taxes, for instance — in exchange for an inordinately generous welfare state. (One important economic policy exported from the mainland, the federal minimum wage, is believed to have had devastating effects.) The territory is currently stuck in a deep economic malaise, driving large numbers of residents to emigrate, but what it needs is structural reform, not statehood.
So what is Governor Bush thinking? In Washington, the issue has long been more of a Democratic cause — the state would be reliably blue — but some Republicans have warmed to the idea on political grounds, too, thinking it will win over Hispanic voters, especially the growing population of Puerto Ricans in Florida. Bush surely believes what he said (his brother was sympathetic, too), but if this is a political ploy, it’s an unwise one.
Needless to say, trying to win over more Hispanic voters is a good idea. But it should be accomplished by pushing sound policies that appeal to broad swaths of working Americans, rather than offering tailored ethnic ploys. Especially not ones with lasting consequences for the structure of these United States.
The next referendum will be two choices, statehood or independence.
Guess which they’ll choose.
It was the weasel Eric Cantor’s vote for that bill that made me determined to see that he was removed from office.
Why the hell would Bush want more RAT senators, RAT reps and RAT electoral votes by giving statehood to Puerto Rico?
OK - Jeb Bush is just doing a bit. It’s gotta be some kind of comedy routine. It’s like he’s looking for way to alienate conservatives. Some time before the convention he’s gonna say “Just kidding folks”
This is the Bush that has no ‘gravitas’.
The more this guy opens his mouth, makes his brother look smarter and smarter all the time....
Where would we put another star on the American flag? That would cost taxpayers a fortune for the flag change.
But,but,but it’s the most pressing issue of the day!!
Sheesh Jeb is such a LOSER!
Karl Rove has snatched his body.
Jeb is mighty interested in Hispanic issues. How about the rest of us, Jeb. Oh never mind, doesn’t matter, you won’t get the job anyway. We’ll make sure of that.
That picture is just hilarious! It couldn’t be PHOTOSHOPPED any better! Lol
We don’t need another “shallow” thinker in our White House.
Technically, residents of Puerto Rico are not citizens so long as they reside in Puerto Rico. They are US subjects, living in a US territory, with only part of the rights of a full citizen.
But upon entering any of the United States that have been admitted to the Union, they assume the mantle of citizenship, and once residency is established, have all of the rights of any other US citizen.
People from Jamaica or Bermuda or Haiti do not have that same privilege.
Ahm your captain.
Puerto Rico has the best of both worlds as a “Commonwealth”, period.
Same currency, citizenship, no taxes, protection of the USA.....representation in Congress but no vote is a very small price to pay for all of the ‘goodies’ they get.
That is the opinion of the Puerto Rican intelligentsia.
Well according to Obama, we have 57 states. I still see 50 stars in the flag :)
They have the right to vote whether they want to be a state and we have the right to decide if we want them to be a state.
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