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The Great Republican Political Strategy of Insult Puerto Rico for Some Reason (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works
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[+] -36 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (16 children)

Are they? Are they really? Puerto Rico still isn't allowed to be it's own state

Downvoters somehow missing the point where Puerto Ricans are basically treated as second class citizens because of where they live. Puerto Rico should be it's own state already

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  • [–] 56 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    They are still U S. citizens, just not citizens of any state. Same thing can happen if you are born in DC or a military base not in a state.

    American Samoans are the ones that really get screwed. They are just U S. nationals. All the responsibilities of citizens (including the draft when it exists) but not all of the benefits.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It was kind of my point that they were treated as second class citizens, like Samoans, just because of where they were born. Puerto Rico should be it's own state already

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I think maybe the text of your post did not convey that sentiment, particularly given the reliability of Poe's Law. Perhaps in the future, you might include a visible indicator that you are using satire?

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  • [+] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    I mean, it's not because they're Puerto Rican, it's because they live in Puerto Rico. Someone from Iowa who moved to Puerto Rico would also not get a vote.
    This is because our system allocates votes to land, not people.
    US citizens don't get to vote for president. They get to vote for who their place of residence votes for.

    Up until the 60s, people in DC also didn't get a vote, because by default only states get a vote, and it's explicitly not a state.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    Are they? Are they really?

    Yes they really are. They are U.S. citizens who are disenfranchised based on location.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yeah, maybe it wasn't entirely clear there but I was trying to say that they were treated as second class citizens that can pay taxes but can't vote becit of where they live

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You do know that has nothing to do with being of Puerto Rican ethnicity, right? It has to do with living on Puerto Rico. You can be a citizen of Indonesian descent who lives on Puerto Rico and you still can't vote for president. But that person, and all of the other U.S. citizens making up the population of Puerto Rico can just hop on a plane or a boat and come to the continental U.S. (or even Hawaii or Alaska), no passport needed, move there without any immigration issues, and vote in the next presidential election.

    It doesn't matter what your ethnicity is.

    You also can't vote for president if you live on American Samoa or Guam.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I thought that was what I said, but having said that, does any of that make sense to you?Puerto Rico is US territory, you should be able to vote. Same for Samoa and other territories

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    It only makes sense in the context of the electoral college. But I think the electoral college should be gotten rid of via constitutional amendment and the president should be elected by popular vote. In that case, yes, they should be allowed to vote for president.

    As it is now, there's no mechanism to assign electoral college votes to non-states.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Puerto Rican statehood is more complicated than that. Becoming a state is a contentious issue even amongst Puerto Ricans.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Is it?

    I had friends there for a long time, they all basically either wanted the US out or had it be a US state, anything but this in between nothing that they're in now

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yes it is. There is another referendum on statehood this year, but in 2020, the vote was only marginally higher in favor of it than against.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Puerto_Rican_status_referendum

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    A 2019 Gallup poll found 83% of Democrats in the US, but only 35% of Republicans, supported Puerto Rican statehood. A 2020 survey by International Policy Digest found that "The majority of Democrats showed support for statehood for both D.C. (61.8%) and Puerto Rico (69.7%)" while among Republicans, only 26.7% supported D.C. statehood and 34.8% supported Puerto Rican statehood.

    That speaks volumes.

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