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They never were a third world dictatorship. The US took possesion of the island from Spain after the Spanish American War and it's been a commonwealth (territory) of the US ever since. It's government works along similar lines to our state governments but under the eye of the Feds. Puerto Ricans are American citizens (albeit non-income taxpaying) and have fought in all American wars since WWI. I know because my father (a Puerto Rican) was in the US Army (master sgt.) during WWII. There are many patriots there and also many conservatives but I would have to agree, they are the minority (a lot like Massachusetts?). For that reason, statehood would not be a good thing. But I don't believe PR would ever become a dictatorship, at least not without an internal civil war.

Don't take my comments personally. I'm sure there are those that are proud of their status and that of PR. I agree with your MA comparison. That said, PR (as a whole) only cares for PR and sucking from the government tit. Since PR is a commonwealth it is much easier to cut it lose than it would be for a true state like MA. How does PR benefit the nation as a whole? If you've got good arguments then I'll change my tune. Otherwise, PR is like that guy at work that doesn't do jack, rides other's coattails, and is basically a drag on others.

No insult meant to your father or any other Puerto Rican that ever went to war, but my father wore the uniform of the United States Army in WWII also and the United States government didn't make a welfare state out of the country my grandparents emigrated from, LEGALLY, to the tune of $18.8 billion dollars plus every year.

No mercenary army on the face of the earth is worth the $100s of billions of dollars we've given Puerto Rico over the last 100 years.

Are you implying that Puerto Rico didn't have a dog in that fight that was WWII? Have any of the Puerto Ricans you've talked to made it sound like they or their kinsmen were dragged off to that war?

Do you doubt for one minute that the Nazis would have been heaving Puerto Ricans into the ovens ahead of just about any of the rest of the inhabitants of the caribbean islands?

Your father, my father and a whole lot of others should be thanking God that there was a United States of America to give them a uniform, a weapon, training and support enough to defeat the Nazis.

The United States is owed by the rest of the free countries and free peoples of the world. Not the other way around.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and whole lot of countries around the globe owe a debt to the United States that they can never repay.