this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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[–] Saprophyte 179 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

No, this is what we do. 51=17x3. 52=26x2. 53, however is a prime number so it can't be divided.

We make PR a state, Guam, and DC.

AND WE BECOME.... One nation, indivisible.

[–] homesweethomeMrL 44 points 2 months ago

You have . . . a point.

[–] NotBillMurray 22 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Squish the Dakotas together and make PR a state, we wouldn't even need a new flag.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (7 children)

No silly, we COMBINE some of the 18 low-population states so we can go back to 48! One nation 6x8, with a better balance in representation! Or 45 could be nice as well.

[–] Slab_Bulkhead 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

overly positive elementary school teacher voice* "okay low pop states find your buddy." "to make it easier for some of you if your state starts with a cardinal direction congrats you've already got a preassigned merge buddy and new name!"... "ah no Kansas, 'Ar' is not a direction, you and Arkansas wont work you don't even share a border hun" "...unless" Kansouri-Oklasas

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why combine extant states? Just pull a colonial Europe and draw a whole new map over it! Nuts to "natural boundaries" or "cultural similarities", everyone on the east coast from DC to King's Bay is now part of the State of Midlantic.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 months ago

God you can't even have colonies anymore, another victim of wokeness

[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 months ago (6 children)

I'm not sure that more than 50% of Puerto Rico wants to be a state.

[–] Sarmyth 48 points 2 months ago (3 children)

They vote on it rather frequently. They do at the moment but it does waffle a bit.

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[–] WaxedWookie 30 points 2 months ago (3 children)

But that would shift the election in favour of the Democrats...

Yes - if the GOP can't survive more proportional representation, they shouldn't.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Potentially. Puerto Rico is also a religious state.

[–] nieminen 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Religious doesn't MEAN republican, just so happens to be one of the things that usually indicates a Republican.

I know plenty of smart religious people who are democrats. Most of the draw for the US is Christian nationalism (aka white supremacy) that I think won't work on most in PR.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Puerto Rico should be it's own country.

[–] WoodScientist 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Personally, I think we should force the island to choose its fate. We can't keep the status quo going forever. The idea of a nation like the US maintaining a colony with millions of people on it is a historical anachronism. It was a mistake to ever create the colony in the first place, and it's a mistake to keep it going. We should force the Puerto Ricans to make a choice. A new binding referendum. Pass a statehood bill that grants statehood to PR based on the results of a final binding vote. And that referendum has two and only two choices on it - statehood or independence. They're either all the way in, or all the way out. The choice is theirs.

I know in principle that, from a self-determination perspective, that Puerto Ricans should have a full menu of choices available to it, including staying a territory. But it's high time for the US to get out of the colony business. US territory status should be reserved for holdings that are so sparsely populated that they would never possibly make a viable state. But Puerto Rico is just way too large to justify holding as a territory.

We need to solve this problem. And I think we should have a final binding referendum, one where statehood or independence will automatically happen based on the results of that referendum.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

They can become a state if they want to. They have voted against it in the past.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Their most recent vote in 2020 results in favor of statehood (not by much). However, Congress has to make it happen, not Puerto Rico.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

came to say this. Its kinda their own fault. Which more than anything indicates how american they are.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (3 children)

My understanding is that many Puerto Ricans don't even want statehood.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (1 children)

About 50-60% want statehood, it’s the majority opinion, but a lot of people like not having income taxes

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[–] finitebanjo 20 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Just take statehood away from North Dakota and give it to PR so we can keep the number of stars and stripes.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Number of stripes isn't going to change; it'll stay at 13.

50 stars is boomer shit. Time for 51.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 11 points 2 months ago

Change the number of stripes, too. Add blue stripes, turn the red stripes pink, and ditch the Bald Eagle for a shark.

Only then will America truly be Woke.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Merge north and south dakota

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[–] MehBlah 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

A better way to say is Puerto Rico has more US citizens than 18 US States. If the goal is to piss off maga that is.

This page from 2020 says 20

https://puertoricoreport.com/population-puerto-rico-exceeds-populations-21-states/

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[–] qooqie 16 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I honestly don’t think this would ever get support. Puerto Rico is very republican last I checked so dems aren’t exactly incentivized to vote it in. And republicans don’t want it because that would be fair treatment to a minority so

[–] Brkdncr 46 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I’m more interested in PR having representation then how it affects my own opinions.

[–] qooqie 15 points 2 months ago

Yeah I agree, I meant more the actual lawmakers aren’t terribly incentivized

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[–] LEDZeppelin 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Irony of the situation that the same Republican Party hates Puerto Ricans so much. I hope PR folks understand that when repubes say migrants are rapists, druggists, and murderers they also mean you - even though you’re not migrants - MAGA doesn’t give a fuck to the fact that you’re citizens.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (4 children)

"No no no....he's talking about Haitians, those savages.

We Puerto Ricans are the exemption. We're special."

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[–] NegativeInf 9 points 2 months ago

Which is why, like in all past state additions, you do it in a way that is balanced based on contemporary divides, like slave vs free states. Puerto Rico and DC at the same time.

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[–] Kcap 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Kamala should seize on this and say she'd push for statehood, if not for anything other than to watch Republicans say they would oppose it.

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[–] nifty 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I am surprised conservatives don’t want to add PR as a state, Republicans would definitely get more reps voting along religious lines in congress

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Etterra 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If a potential new state has a relatively heavily (say 60%+) lean then it'll never be admitted unless steps are taken to balance it out. Like how certain subdividing of California could. Unless the Democrats have a supermajority in both houses, and the President, and they actually get their heads out of their asses enough to get something done, I doubt Puerto Rico will ever get statehood. They might want to kick out the overrepresented continental real estate assholes first.

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