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.
You have . . . a point.
Squish the Dakotas together and make PR a state, we wouldn't even need a new flag.
As a former Dakotan of the north, screw South Dakota aka the lesser Dakota. North Dakota actually pays taxes unlike Switzerland of the us. A joke we had: how do you know you’re in South Dakota? Potholes every quarter mile instead of every mile in the road.
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.
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
Just break a pool cue and force them to fight tbh
This needs to be a meme.
No factors, still divisible.
Guam + Marianas would make more sense, very low populations out ðere
God you can't even have colonies anymore, another victim of wokeness
But that would shift the election in favour of the Democrats...
Yes - if the GOP can't survive more proportional representation, they shouldn't.
Potentially. Puerto Rico is also a religious state.
Most latinos are religious, or from religious areas, and, I would wager, most are pretty conservative in a lot of ways. However they, as a majority, go for the democratic party.
If it wasn't for gerrymandering and voter suspension they would've been extinct a while back. We might've even had something other than a 2 party system and ranked choice voting. People would be surprised by what could be if we didn't have a greedy minority in a big ass coat pretending we want to see them make all the money while they keep squeezing us for our pennies.
But hey, I should be thankful for my 30k a yr and paying for insurance that'll tell you to forget about surgery just slap a bandaid on it
Don't forget the electoral college...
Broken-ass excuse for a democracy that'll be shattered if Trump wins.
They can become a state if they want to. They have voted against it in the past.
Just take statehood away from North Dakota and give it to PR so we can keep the number of stars and stripes.
Number of stripes isn't going to change; it'll stay at 13.
50 stars is boomer shit. Time for 51.
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.
Add DC and make it an even 52
Combine the Dakotas. Combine Montana and Wyoming. Make Puerto Rico a state. Return the vast majority of the District of Columbia back to Virginia and Maryland, save a core that actually contains the Capitol, White House, etc (to retain the point - which was that the seat of federal government is not subject to any state).
I think you underestimate the political power Wyoming wields. For a clue, take a look at one of Wyoming's largest industries.
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
I’m more interested in PR having representation then how it affects my own opinions.
Yeah I agree, I meant more the actual lawmakers aren’t terribly incentivized
If they have enough people for four representatives, then if they stay a territory they ought to get more than the single delegate they have in the House. I don't even care if that would add more siding with Republicans, they deserve more than they have.
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.
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.
I don't think "very republican" is accurate but definitely not as left leaning as Dems like to believe. There is a deep seeded mistrust of government while at the same time high expectations of benefits from the government. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So the bottom line is that you just can't tell which way they would go and that's not a gamble either party wants to take.
Until the population clearly wants statehood or independence, we get the status quo
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/
A comment on that linked story says:
Unfortunately, this article is 3 years old and the data is inaccurate. Immigration from PR to USA has been huge in last three years; thus, you should update your data!
Yeah, But if you look even closer and do the math. They updated that article in 2020. Its four years out of date. Hence the reason why the url has 21 in it and the current version of the article has 20 states but the current number is 18 states.
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
It's because racism
They'll take the votes. They just don't want to be seen with them.
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.
Dems don’t want it to have statehood either. It would make Puerto Rico less exploitable, and the donors don’t want that.
Surprised at 18, but guess it's not that surprising.
It's not hard to beat Wyoming in population especially.
why not oppose US colonialism and support Puerto Rican independence instead of statehood?
25% of their GDP is federal money given by the US government and they have $37 Billion in public debt. Independence would demolish their economy right now. They would need a long onramp (or offramp, as it were) to make that work, but if it's what they wanted to do, I would certainly support it.
i thought this would be a reference to the Alice Cooper song. but yeah, I support statehood for Puerto Rico.
Puerto rico should be finally freed from the the chains of the united states. Only the white man is free in the US and seems like this still holds true.
They'll be granted statehood. But in order to compromise with Republicans, the votes of Senators and House members from Puerto Rico will only count as 3/5ths of a vote on the House or Senate floor.
That would be fine, but it would be a hard transition. PR holds a lot of public debt and is almost entirely reliant on federal funding for healthcare, education, infrastructure, and disaster relief. If it was made an independent nation today it would be disastrous for almost everyone on the island. Becoming a self-sufficient polity doesn't require independent nationhood first. It would seem the first step would be to become self-reliant as a nation, and then seek independent nationhood after that has been achieved, or at least until the groundwork is established. 25% of PR's GDP right now is pure federal funding given by the US government. That size of a blow to the economy of PR would be horribly awful for the people.
DC also has more people than 2 states. Basically if you take the top 52 subdivisions of the US by population, the only 2 that aren't states "just so happen" to be the two with the highest minority populations.
just make all the minorities leave those places duh
then we don't have these pesky demographics to flare up on us
Well, DC was very explicitly created so that the capital would not be in any state, so while they should get senators and representatives, they should not become a state.
It would be more democratic if Puerto Rico had the same congressional representation as a state. Same with DC. Also, maybe the number of senators for every state should be proportional to population, again to make things more democratic.
Does anyone support this at the federal level currently?
Didn't they recently vote to not become a state?
Not as such, but it wasn't clear cut either. Partly due to the ballot language, it says.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_statehood_movement
Although the previous two referendums (November 2012 and June 2017) also had ostensibly pro-statehood outcomes, The New York Times described them as "marred, with ballot language phrased to favor the party in office".
For example, the fourth referendum, held in November 2012, asked voters (1) whether they wanted to maintain the current political status of Puerto Rico and, if not, (2) which alternative status they prefer. Of the fifty-four percent (54.0%) who voted "No" on maintaining the status quo, 61.11% chose statehood, 33.34% chose free association, and 5.55% chose independence.
Never happen. If it got enough support from the people, it would make it to the supreme court and be blocked
The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States
The supreme court would have to get pretty fucking bold to weigh in on this as it is a clearly defined power of congress.
Then again its not like there are any fucking checks on power of the supreme court anymore as 2/3's of congress is required for fucking anything, which will never fucking happen on any topic ever again.
I keep saying it: they need to abolish the size limit of the House. It's been frozen for 100 years while the US population has exploded. The result has been less representation for urban areas and more for rural, both in Congress and when deciding president via the electoral college. You actually normalize it so everyone's voice is heard equally? Congressional gridlock goes away. "Stolen" elections go away.
