51st State?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20238272
This referendum isn't new news, but if it really does show that the people back statehood (and it seems like it very well could) it will be interesting to see how long it takes to replace all the 50 star flags, as well as how long it will take for the old flags to become collector's items (well into my middle ages, at earliest, I'd imagine)
this seems really weird... I think I am actually against it somewhat...
Even in the article, the people voting to join seem to want to be a state for the fiscal benefits it would ensure them from the federal government, which isn't going to help America very much. I know there are some very poor and under developed places in the continental US, but PR has to be considerably worse off.
Then there is the issue of the drug war. If anyone watched the full video of the congressional hearing with the DEA where their head refused to say heroin was worse than pot, at one point a member of congress from PR basically gave her a speech about how much man power is needed in PR to fight drug smuggling. If this were made a domestic policing issue, it has the potential to directly engage American military and police agencies in the Latin American drug war, at least to a much greater extent than they are engaged now.
I genuinely fail to see the advantage beyond the simple pragmatism on PRs part in that they would receive greater resources from the federal government.
I don't know, but then I haven't done much research. I can see House Republicans blocking it because Puerto Rico having voting rights would be giving the Democrats 2 million more potential voters.
Although I seem to recall reading somewhere that Puerto Rico was very conservative by the standards of a Latino nation/territory.
I like the idea of making Puerto Rico as a state.
Boring dadudemon story time:
I was the weird kid. Politics and history interested me even from a young age. Since I was a wee laddy, I would day dream about Puerto Rico becoming a state. I always thought it was lame that they had not become a state, yet. I remember reading some virtual propaganda from PR from the pro-staters and I thought it was horrible that they had not become a state, yet. Looking back and remembering what I read, I can see clearly that it was just propaganda (virtually...it made legit points). So, hearing about this is fulfilling a childhood wish of mine. I hope PR becomes a state. Honestly, I have never met a Puerto Rican that I didn't like. They've all been great people. I just hope we do right by PR when they become a state. Hopefully, we pull our heads out of our asses and start doing better as a nation so we can be deserving of PR's wish to join the union.
End boring story-time.