Really is unbelievable, isn’t it? That’s exactly why we’ve been accused of Imperialism throughout our history. We take territories, and they essentially become “serfs” to our Kingdom.
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I really think it’s time to stop referring to those as “anomalies” and call it what it is:
Our new reality.
Anyone with half a lizard brain can see that we’re in deep trouble. Climate change denial is like any other denial. It’s “denial”… a coping mechanism. It doesn’t mean what they’re in denial about isn’t real. In fact, denial usually indicates that whatever they’re in denial about is very real.
It’s the mass denial that has me concerned. Turning mob mentality away from the mob focus is harder than most efforts…
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Unless you are a Resident in a mainland State. And registered to vote. But yes, John Oliver,in one of his early shows, has a wonderful segment on the lack of vote in the US territories. I am sure you can find it on Youtube. He even mentions The Insular Cases in the SCOTUS (Downs v Bidwell) which defined the limitations that still screw the PR people, such as the lack of ability for PR and its municipalities to declare bankruptcy as can all US mainland political entities.
When I was in college (in the Stone Age early 1970s) we had a professor who is now US Court of Appeals Judge Jose Cabranes who pointed out the irony of PR’s second class citizenship given the comparatively extremely high “blood tax” (compared population proportion to every mainland State) paid by Puerto Ricans serving, being maimed and dying in the US military ever since they were granted citizenship right before the US joined WW1. Also, the eventual founder and leader of the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party, Pedro Albizu Campos, a Harvard student, was radicalized by what he witnessed and his own treatment in a segregated US Army battallion when he volunteered to defend the US in said First World War.
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I remember the John Oliver segment. Entire episode, wasn’t it? Maybe not… I love his harder-hitting topics, where he doesn’t pull punches when something is simply ludicrous like those policies.
If given the choice between statehood and independence, I’m not sure what PR would vote for. We should offer them both and put it to a referendum. This “territory” nonsense is so 19th century Colonial…
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We’re gonna need more paper towels…
When I was in late elementary school or junior high (mid sixties), Puerto Rico held a Plebiscite. Commonwealth (Estado Libre Asociado) won handily. Since that Plebiscite, the founder /inventor of the Commonwealth Status, Luis Munoz Marin, stepped down as Governor (first elected Governor), died, and beginning in the late sixties, the PNP (Partido Nuevo Progresista, a spin off of the old Statehood Party), has won several elections. Governor Rosello’s father was a two term PNP Governor. There have been multiple Plebiscites held and I believe the last few, the Statehood option has settled in with a lead but not an overwhelming lead. The other development is that beginning with the scandal known as The Cerro Maravilla Massacre (in the late 70’s), the hard core of Right Wingers in Puerto Rico (including the current Trump supporters in their body politic and journalism) have all coalesced within the PNP. Somewhat similar to what has happened to the US GOP.
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Very interesting perspective @jacksonhts. Thank you for that.
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You’re quite welcome. I grew up there and participated in a weekly reading group on PR History, Literature, and Social Science/Politics from about 1978 to 1989, and have continued to read books on PR but not as frequently as during our group. I am often amazed about what I can still remember. Puerto Rico politics after the American Invasion but before our first elected Governor is a very fascinating period and history because of the legislative coalitions. The Socialist Party (founded by a Spanish Labor Organizer named Santiago Iglesias Pantin) and the Republican Party (pro Statehood, founded by a Black Puerto Rican Doctor named Jose Celso Barbosa, who had done his college and Medical School at the University of Michigan, Spain having seen fit to have no University in PR) were often coalition partners against the Autonomist party, founded by Luis Munoz Rivera, who was Governor Munoz Marin’s father.
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