For an example of Lewis said, Puerto Rico has its own Olympic team now. That'd change after statehood of course.
But what does that matter? You and Lewis seem to be insisting that they'd have reservations about statehood despite voting for it. Who says
everybody has reservations about statehood? The issue has become partisan in Puerto Rico - over half a century ago - yes in this vote statehood very narrowly* won while the statehood-supporting party was swept from office; this is unlike past referenda where statehood lost. So clearly there's a degree of increasing support for statehood. What I'm going on about is explaining the logic behind the widespread reservations about statehood; these are shared by very many who believe that sovereignty is not a viable option and are therefore not voting for Independence (and yes, presumably by very many who voted for statehood as well, as the least bad option since the status quo is far from ideal either.) Puerto Rico is not some territory on the American frontier settled by Americans, and should not be treated as such. It's not culturally or geographically a part of the US of A and statehood should not be rammed down the throats of half the country. I'm saying this as someone who, were I Puertorican, would probably be a "practical" vote for statehood.
*if you compare the two meaningful figures
The vote on question 1 alone should be enough for a straight up clean vote on statehood and I'm confident the pro-statehood folks would run away with it given the lopsided margin on question 2.
I... I... I didn't know it was possible to spin
this fast. The "lopsided margin" is the result of status quo supporters splitting between the "status quo under another name" option and spoiling their ballots.
In practical terms, the answer is probably as soon as there's a PNP Governor and a Democratic US Government again (Republicans officially support PR statehood too but I can't help but feel there's a reason why all four previous referenda have occurred under this combination), they'll try again and have a good rhetorical weapon in this vote's result.
