I’m Not The Only One

Hillary Clinton has remained in Puerto Rico, feverishly campaigning and telling voters there they can have it both ways, in other words, the advantages of being a U.S. state while pretending to be a sovereign nation.

Here’s a brief rundown on Puerto Rico’s current political status (To avoid confusion, I will refer to residents of Puerto Rico as Puerto Ricans and U.S. mainland residents of Puerto Rican descent as Nuyoricans): Puerto Rico has its own Olympic team and enjoys representation in the United Nations.

Puerto Ricans don’t pay federal income taxes (except for those working for federal agencies located in Puerto Rico), but pay into Social Security and Medicare. Despite paying into Social Security and Medicare, Puerto Ricans cannot receive any Social Security Income and are allocated 15 percent fewer Medicare funds than if it were a U.S. state.

Spanish is the official language with English as a widely taught second language. The U.S. dollar is the only currency used on the island and all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, except for those few who have denounced their U.S. citizenship as a political statement. Puerto Ricans are not allowed to vote for U.S. President and only have one representative in Congress who has no vote.

Puerto Ricans are allowed to enlist in the U.S Armed Forces, and Puerto Rican men were drafted into the military during World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Puerto Rico has a National Guard but relies on the U.S. military for defense. Puerto Ricans have fought in every U.S. war since 1900.

While Puerto Rico’s political status is unclear, there’s no doubt that the relationship between the island and the U.S. is one of a colony subservient to its mother country.  To use a sports analogy, Puerto Rico isn’t on the U.S. team, and it isn’t its own team either, but rather the team’s towel boy.  Whatever goes on in Puerto Rico does so at the approval of Washington, yet Puerto Ricans have no power over the Congressmembers or President who literally reign over the island from 1,000 miles away.  Such is the life of a colony.

What few Puerto Ricans seem to understand is that when you try to have everything you end up not having much of anything.  And that’s exactly what they have.

But Hillary is telling Puerto Ricans the exact opposite: that they really can have it all.  This New York Times article quotes the following:

“At a rally on Saturday evening in Aguadilla, at the western end of the island, Mrs. Clinton struck many of those same themes. To cheers, she said, “I believe you should have a vote in picking the president,” even before the issue of the island’s status is resolved.”

Hillary also promised to give Puerto Rico a greater voice and even a vote in Congress.  If Puerto Rico wants to be granted the same rights as a U.S. state, let them become a state.  Some Puerto Ricans aren’t interested in the Democratic Primary at all.  If they want to distance themselves from the U.S. and hold tightly onto their Puerto Rican identity, they can become an independent country.  But this colony garbage has got to go.

I’ve only visited Puerto Rico a few times in my life, and from my experiences I’ve found most people there blame the United States for most of their problems.  So much disdain for the U.S., yet when it comes time to vote for their future political status, it’s always a dead heat between colony and state, with independence getting a measly 3 or 4 percent.

But Hillary is determined to catch up with Barack Obama by nabbing as many popular and delegate votes as possible by telling Puerto Ricans the biggest possible lie.  And if by some unbelievable fairy tale scenario in which Clinton wins the nomination and the general election, she would either forget her promise to Puerto Rico or introduce some half-assed bill and blame the Republicans for keeping her from giving Puerto Rico all the perks of being a state without having to be a state.

Personally, I think the next President can solve Puerto Rico’s status dilemma by abolishing their “commonwealth” status, thus forcing them to choose between independence or statehood.  But don’t expect Hillary to tell them the cold, hard truth.  She certainly has broken the glass ceiling for her gender-thanks to her, now women can be political hacks as well, complete with the same empty gesture, grandiose promises just waiting to be broken and great big phony smiles you’d expect from most male politicians.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 3:11 am and is filed under Voting, History, Latin America, 2008 Presidential Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.