Andy_L
November 19, 2020, 1:12pm
25
razordance:
This move is not on the Dems’ platform but they’re clearly favorable to considering it, and PR is having yet another statehood referendum in November.
This is not like DC statehood. There are two special problems:
PR is poor.
No state was previously admitted to the Union until English-speaking whites had become a majority (or at least, as in the case of Hawaii, the dominant culture). That will never happen in PR. It will always be part of the Latin American culture. Statehood means redefining what it means to be American.
Now, PR political parties have always formed around the island’s constitutional future – statehood, independence, or continuation of the status quo. Once that is rendered moot, there will have to be a party realignment – but, I suspect that whoever comes out on top will caucus with the Dems, because, well, PR is poor.
Louisiana was admitted when French was the primary language of many of the inhabitants. The initial Constitution of the state required that laws be written in both languages and allowed both languages to be used in governmental debates.