We have tried to vote and indicate whatever desire we have for statehood or independence. Y’all (as in US Government, not citizens) just use the results to wipe your asses.
Slight edit: I’m Puerto Rican
PR has held referendums on this multiple times. During the five major referendums (not including the sixth one where voter turnout was like less than 20%) three of them – the majority of the five major referendums – resulted in not wanting statehood. Another had incredibly high levels of abstention, and the most recent one resulted in wanting statehood by only a 2% majority.
For such a long-term action with wide-ranging effects, I think it’s reasonable to expect Puerto Rico to clearly make the preference known by an unquestionable 2/3rd majority since it effects everyone on the island. Shoving through something so dramatic based on a slight majority is disrespectful to the half of the island that doesn’t want to become a state. Whether that would pass through congress is unknown, but certainly not in the current moment. But an irrefutable desire for statehood coming from PR itself seems a necessary first step before anything else is done, and that has not yet occurred.
There’s also the fact that a lot of people in power in Puerto Rico (and in mainland U.S.) are making a lot of money off of the grifty laws under which the territory is governed. So when these referendums come up the propaganda machine starts to do its work on the populace.
this is a critical point. any chance of a meaningful positive change for Puerto Rico runs the risk of being overrun with corruption at very high levels, especially corruption coming from the U.S. i would guess the island has a better chance if they become a U.S. state, because federal law on corruption in the states is strict, or at least more strict
I understand your point, but at the end of the day those that vote are the ones that “count”. I personally am one of the many that didn’t vote in those referendums due to feeling insulted by them.
The general consensus of this is that why would you vote in this when it won’t change anything? Congress didn’t approve it, so nothing will come out of it. There are some other reasons, of course, but this one of the most common ones.
You think the people that vote are the ones that count, but you were insulted by a domestically initiated internal referendum asking you to vote on the future political status of your community, so you didn’t vote…? Without a clear mandate from Puerto Rico itself, you seem to be saying you’d prefer congress to decide the status of Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans.
If so, you got exactly what you asked for, and I see little room for complaining about it.