Puerto Rico statehood referendum 2020

[StateBoiler]

Assuming Dems have a federal trifecta, I'd be dismayed (but, knowing democrats, not overly shocked) if DC and PR aren't states by summer's end (assuming no weird court challenges to DC and assuming the PR referendum passes). If it'll happen at all, the end of the year's probably more or less a deadline, because I imagine it'd be a bit of a hassle to redo redistricting after new states are added.

1. It's not that simple.
2. I think Puerto Rico will someday become a state. But should we be granting statehood to places that vote say 52% in favor? What if that number mildly flips in 5 years and becomes 55% in favor of secession? It's best for all federal entities to not touch on the subject of "a majority of this state's population want to leave" because it's a big can of worms. This country dealt with it once and it ended with 618,000 people dead.

You get upwards to say two-thirds in support, entirely different story.

[StateBoiler]

How come this isn't getting more media attention? This is just as big as the election itself.

Because no one cares about Puerto Rico. It's not anti-Puerto Rican, it's just how elections work. Imagine how all your people running for state legislature or county council that can't get anyone to give a damn feel.

There are other aspects of this that while it's not going to play any role in statehood talk about the difficulty of adjustment that's going to occur. A girl from Puerto Rico just came to my wife's middle school. She was an 8th grader but could hardly speak English. Based on equivalency of education, she should be an 8th grader here. Since she was on the young end of 8th graders anyway, they decided to put her in 7th grade. English is not the official language of this country but it has always been the de facto functional language, so how are educational requirements going to work and diplomas from there be looked at on the mainland? The economic aspects of the island are easy to see - it's going to join the list of net takers, which means less goes back to every other state in the union. Low on the priority list, but all sports programs on the island will decline mightily because there's going to be no more Puerto Rico in the Olympics. I went to a men's college volleyball (yes, it does exist) game a couple years ago and the local college's team had two Puerto Rican starters. Probably because they still play the game there for Olympic reasons vs. it getting cut for Title IX. Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic will be dead which is going to disappoint every Puerto Rican in the majors when that comes around, they'll become no different than Californians or Texans. That point is probably one that's going to hit at self-identified Puerto Ricans the most. Puerto Rican at that point no longer becomes an identity, it becomes a place of residence. So if you're a Puerto Rican that lives in New York, you're no longer a Puerto Rican for the same reason a Californian living in New York is no longer a Californian. But if I moved to San Juan, I'd become Puerto Rican.

Everything I state was probably true for when territories joined the country in the past. Imagine getting Hawaiian education up to snuff back then was a task.