Although the proposal approved a few days ago in the federal Lower House so that Washington DC Becoming the 51st state of the United States has no chance of becoming law, statesmen leaders on the island reacted with glee to the message carried by Democratic congressmen who are driving the idea.
“Whenever you want to correct something like the lack of representation, the lack of vote in American democracy, I see it favorably because that is our case. Hopefully the District of Columbia will become a state because then it will serve as an example that this should also happen in Puerto Rico.“Said the pre-candidate for governor for the New Progressive Party Pedro Pierluisi, who as resident commissioner aligned himself with the Democratic Party.
“The Washington DC argument was very difficult to explain. We are talking about the federal government being designed in this way so that it cannot give greater strength to one state than to another. They left all the conglomerate federal buildings within what is to be a state and then put Washington (Douglass Commonwealth, as the state would be called). If they were able to do that, for a territory it is much easier ”, argued for his part, the Senator Carmelo Rios.
In the United States, Republican politicians have historically opposed statehood in the federal capital, for considering it would become a Democratic stronghold that it would add two senators and a representative to the delegation of that party almost automatically. The context of the most recent congressional attempt has been no exception, with a Republican-dominated federal Senate that has advanced that will not give way to statehood for Washington DC.
Similar arguments have been outlined above to describe the case of Puerto Rico, something that, for Ríos, has no foundation, considering that the island would be a call ‘swing state’, in which both American parties would have chances of victory.
“If you have a president or a candidate like Donald Trump, I assure you that we are going to be Democrats. If you have a president like (George) Bush, father, very possibly Puerto Rico will vote Republican because they are different leaders. So the Republicans cannot come with the excuse that they do not want to give statehood because we would be Democrats because everything depends on the candidate and the quality of the candidate that comes and what he offers for Puerto Rico, “said Ríos, who identifies with the camp. Democrat and is one of the co-presidents in Puerto Rico of the presidential campaign of Joe Biden.
“In the District of Columbia they have had ‘statehood yes or no’ plebiscites and now we are going to have ours. And that was something they did there and is propelling or causing that at least in the federal House of Representatives they are ready to approve this matter, “Pierluisi added, in anticipation of the consultation to be held on November 3, parallel to the general elections.
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