Ironduke

I favor it. Post your reasons why you're for or against it.

Leader

We do not need another liberal state. Let them be their own country. Now that they will not let us bomb that island of their coast what value does the place have?

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Ironduke

Independence? I don't think it's time for the US to start surrendering territory. Puerto Rico has strategic significance in the eastern Carribbean. Besides, if Hawaii and Alaska could become states, there's no reason why Puerto Rico can't.

Puerto Ricans are already US citizens, they can move freely between the mainland and the island.

Leader

But do you want to give the dems 3 more electoral votes? I don't.

Ironduke

People said Hawaii would be a sure thing for the Republicans, and Alaska for the Democrats. Turns out it has been the exact opposite.

Besides, I think this is an issue that transcends partisan politics.

ChrisF202

Dont Puerto Ricians want to remain a commonwealth? My only problem is that they get everything we do and the right to vote (I belive) but they pay no taxes.

Ironduke

1967 plebiscite:
Commwealth 60.41%
Statehood 38.98%
Independence 0.60%

1993 plebiscite:
Commonwealth 48.58%
Statehood 46.34%
Independence 4.45%.

1998 plebiscite:
Statehood 46.5%
Independence 2.5%
Free Association 0.3%
Commonwealth 0.1%
None of the above 50.3%

Confed999

I'll support whatever they vote for, but what is "None of the above", besides a line from Brewster's Millions?

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Leader

Are they all going to learn to speak English? For some reason I doubt it. Which means there is going to be more machines asking me what language I speak.

Ironduke

What does language have to do with anything? 18%, or about 50,000,000 Americans speak a language other than English as their native language.

I could understand your frustration if you're trying to access an ATM in San Juan, but there's no reason for us to impose our language on Puerto Rico, and there's no reason for Spanish to be imposed on the rest of us if they become a state.

Leader

A united country has a border, a language, and a culture.

Ironduke

Well the United States has two states and territories outside the lower 48, many cultures, and many languages.

Confed999

IMHO, that's our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Praxus

Our Greatest Weakness is our unwillingness to recognize the Western system as supperior to the rest of the world. In other words our enemy is MULTICULTURALISM!

ChrisF202

You mean like diversity in our country? Some diversity is good, too much is bad. I personally feel we have had to much diversity, but the problem is that the minorities are living in their communities and the whites in theirs. This is a very big issue in my town, where of the 39,000 people, 96% are white.